Article October 16, 2000 Issue

GOODNESS IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Dorothy Dipuo Maubane

Our family's finances were restored through prayer based on an understanding that spiritual goodness is always available and permanent. My late husband had managed the family's finances. Now, as a widow, I needed to find a good money management approach.

I adopted a principle found in the manual of church government written by Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science: "God requires wisdom, economy, and brotherly love to characterize all the proceedings of the members ..." (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 77). As I prayed about "wisdom, economy, and brotherly love," I saw that reasonable foresight is a necessary part of good money management. Yet, while it's good to set aside the amount needed to care for future expenses, an obsessive concern for a monetarily secure future can be a form of distrust of God's ever-presence and the constant availability of goodness.

I recognized the fundamental principle of good to be God Himself. The dictionary defines good in part as "real, just, kind, morally sound and beneficial." God is always providing these conditions for each of His children. This spiritual view confirms the fact that there is one universal, impartial source of good, blessing the whole world. To value the good that is always present counteracts insecurity in the form of fluctuations in stock market prices, instability in personal finances, international debt in developing countries.

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