What should be the motive of one's life? Security? Success? Fulfillment? As desirable as these may be, they could signify self-interest. The alternative, altruism, could prove disappointing, too, if one's greatest effort fell far short of meeting others' needs.

So it is important to examine one's motives, to stir thought to determine and improve action. Even the most trivial action is in response to an incentive, a thought. For right action it is essential, then, to start from a right motive. When differing motives contend with each other, our actions become uncertain, disappointing, and often nonproductive.

How can we sort out our motives and arrive at more certain and effective direction for our actions? By listening for God's guidance. Turning to God stills impulsive action, silences willfulness, opens the door to intelligent solutions, and cultivates a deep, moving desire to know God's will.

Christ Jesus pointed to God as the source of his knowledge and the motive power of all his acts. John records that he said, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." ^{John 6:38.} He also declared, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." ^{John 5:19.} During his questioning by Pilate prior to his crucifixion, Jesus declared, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." ^{John 18:37.} Thus the Way-shower defined supreme motivation.

God's will is that we bear witness to Truth; that we know God as the Principle of man and the universe; that we know God as divine Mind, which inspires, animates, corrects, and protects. Here is the highest motivation, the most powerful incentive for a good life. This is really the only basis for gaining harmony and success. As we elevate thought to God's purpose, we feel Mind impelling and guiding every right action, from the most serious decisions to the trivia of daily living. Elevated thought recognizes that God is the only creator of man and perceives that man is more than a human working with high motives. He is, as God's creature, a witness to God, and his only real reason for being is to glorify his creator.

We witness to God when we dismiss temptations because we recognize uprightness and virtue as worthy standards. Addressing the subject of motives in an article, "Youth and Young Manhood," Mrs. Eddy says: "Dear reader, right thinking, right feeling, and right acting—honesty, purity, unselfishness—in youth tend to success, intellectuality, and happiness in manhood." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 274.}

There are athletes, for example, who have found that striving to achieve excellence rather than competitiveness is the better incentive for excellent performance. Then the impediments of rivalry and jealousy drop away, and the athletes find they have greater dominion. What an excellent preparation for the "game of life."

Genuine willingness to witness to God, to obey divine Principle, to express divine Love, is proper motivation, and Mrs. Eddy assures, "Religions may waste away, but the fittest survives; and so long as we have the right ideal, life is worth living and God takes care of our life." ^{Ibid., p. 166.}

The Ten Commandments gave the Israelites compelling laws that would not only guide them as they pressed forward to the Promised Land but would also form the basis of a true understanding of God. Jesus, fully conscious of the lasting spiritual power to be found in the Mosaic Decalogue, added the Christly message of grace and truth in the Beatitudes. The spirit of the Commandments and Beatitudes underlies a daily counsel that Mrs. Eddy was inspired to include in the Manual of The Mother Church. She called it "A Rule for Motives and Acts."

This Rule gives a strong directive for us to lift thought and deed above personal likes and dislikes into the understanding of the unchanging, universal love of God. We express this love as we yield to the harmonious activity of spiritual law. The Rule admonishes us to be constantly prayerful and watchful against the varying modes and claims of evil. It states: "Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously." ^{Man., Art. VIII, Sect. 1.}

Someone I knew was questioning what Christian Science really stood for. He was sure it had to be something other than an avoidance of medical help or a simplistic "mind over matter" position. When he read "A Rule for Motives and Acts," his response was an enthusiastic: "Now there's something you can live by!" It is.

Looking to divine Love's direction and jurisdiction, we respond with "true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness." On that basis right relationships are harmonized, proper negotiations made productive, and honest transactions made profitable. And—very important—right motives have much to do with praying for the healing of disease and injury. Healings come more surely when the motive is to glorify God, not just to gain release from suffering, to make things more convenient for us, or even to show what Christian Science can do. Effective, healing prayer is that which reaches out for spiritual progress, for a better sense of witnessing to Truth, for a greater realization of the restorative action of divine Principle that knows no interruption of harmony. This prayer accepts the gentle presence of Love, holding man, its idea, in purity, safety, and wholeness.

As many testimonies of healing published in issues of this periodical attest, when obeying Love is the goal, the path is paved with purity of thought, singleness of purpose, and love in action. No selfish motive, no unjust attitude, no fear, litters divine Love's path. On it we go steadily forward. We may endure storms of injustice, walk through valleys of depression, over mountains of difficulties, but we do go through and over because of spiritual resolve, a deep desire to do God's will, and a confidence that God is with us all the way.

To live truly effective, fulfilling, and unselfish lives we must turn to God as the basis and motive power of all our actions. It is a discipline requiring vigilance, willingness, obedience, but it is a discipline that each individual can accept and follow, since God, divine Love, demands only what is already divinely supplied to man.