Credit where credit is due

One thing I heard a lot when I was a kid in the Christian Science Sunday School is that whatever we’re doing, we do it to glorify God. A win on the sports field? A success in the classroom? My Sunday School teachers often pointed me back to this verse from the Bible: “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31, New International Version).

I got the concept on one level, because I’d also learned in Sunday School that God is cause and we are effect. Here’s how Mary Baker Eddy describes that relationship in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “… like a ray of light which comes from the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God” (p. 250). In other words, we love because God is Love. We reflect intelligence because God is infinite Mind. Christ Jesus put it this way: “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30).

Sometimes, when I accomplished something really cool, I kind of wanted the credit for myself.

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