An eight-year-old boy collected words the way some children hoard marbles. Whenever he heard one that pleased him, he wrote it on a slip of paper. He so treasured his words that he locked them in a secret drawer and warned his sister to keep out of it.

We may be amused at the youngster's false sense of ownership. But at times we too may make false claims about what is ours or may be tricked by the belief that we need to possess material things and characteristics. What traits or qualities do we call ours? All around us we hear about patterned reactions and compulsive behavior. One person views a hot temper as an inherited quality. Another may explain contentiousness on the basis of astrology— "Aries people are just naturally aggressive."

These arguments are only mortal mind, the material sense of existence, defending itself. We do not, in fact cannot, possess traits supposedly fastened upon us by human nature, inheritance, or the influence of the stars. Our real, spiritual selfhood has a divine source. It expresses Love-inspired qualities.

After quoting Christ Jesus' statement, "The kingdom of God is within you," ^{Luke 17:21;} Mrs. Eddy writes, "Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love." ^{Pulpit and Press, p. 3;}

No matter how fixed in us certain traits appear to be, we can change. Obedience to God's will alters any habit of reacting as a mortal. There is then no compulsion to express temper, jealousy, aggression, or any other unlovely trait. Instead, we manifest good humor, appreciation, understanding.

A question we often ask with respect to talent is, "What is our own?" If we look upon our talent as something personal, or finite, we may be tense or perhaps competitive in the use of it. We may doubt our capacity to achieve, or we may struggle to develop what seems to be a limited ability.

As long as Moses clung to the concept of himself as the doer, he hung back and questioned his qualifications for leadership. But his acceptance of God's words, "Certainly I will be with thee," ^{Ex. 3:12;} brought undreamed-of expansion of his capabilities.

Inadequacy is no part of God's creation. When we realize that the source of talent is in Him and see ourselves as unfettered expressions of Mind, we are freed from tension. And since that expression is completely individual and unique, we also find increasing-freedom from competition.

We need not be anxious about making headway, because God not only bestows the gift but maintains it. All the qualities needed, whether persistence, endurance, accuracy, or inspiration, are available. Released from dependence on self, we can exceed what we thought we could do.

What is ours, even if it seems slight, is increased when we stop hugging it to ourselves and release it for others' advantage. Mrs. Eddy writes, "To do good to all because we love all, and to use in God's service the one talent that we all have, is our only means of adding to that talent and the best way to silence a deep discontent with our shortcomings." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 195;}

It is often easier to have a right sense of possession about traits or talent than about supply, because supply seems to depend on ownership of money, resources, things. But if we call these our supply, we may fear that others can steal it or whittle away at it. We can develop a false sense of responsibility about it, be subjected to anxiety over deterioration. Nations that put their trust in material supplies, such as natural resources, may become alarmed by depletion. This can result in jealous rivalry or selfish hoarding.

Mortal mind's laws about supply are deceptive. A quantity of matter is not the answer, whether for nations or individuals. A would-be musician might possess a basketful of plastic musical symbols and a ream of score paper and yet produce no music. A dressmaker needs more than cloth, scissors, and thread, an artist more than paint and palette.

Our need is not for things but for ideas. Persons who are not students of Christian Science, men such as architect-mathematician-engineer Buckminster Fuller, are saying that we ought to make more imaginative use of what is already here instead of frantically searching for new material resources.

If we look to Mind as the source of spiritual ideas, the right human ones come. Spiritual sense knows nothing about lack. When we give up the belief that objects are supply and translate objects into thoughts—perceive the spiritual ideas back of what seem to be material things—we then begin to see that man possesses all that belongs to God. Christ Jesus on several occasions saw through the veil of limited materiality and beheld the spiritual ideas that meet human needs. At the time when he fed the five thousand, surely he did not see the boy possessing loaves and fishes as privileged and the crowd as deprived! His understanding of supply as God-bestowed and as infinite provided food for all.

Paul writing to the Philippians said, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." ^{Phil. 4:19.} This promise holds today. Human demand and divinely mental and spiritual supply can be brought together through our knowing that as God's reflection we have what He has to give. With improvement in understanding we accept spiritual ideas more readily, and we find better ways of meeting needs, whether for technological skills, resources, inventions, income, or talent.

What is ours? The knowledge that right here, right now, we have everything we need to transform character, perfect talent, and give us our daily bread. As we let go a sense of personal ownership and seek to possess more of Truth and Love, we find more joy, harmony, peace, and dominion.