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Good

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Announcements › Forums › God the Only Cause and Creator – June 3rd, 2018 › Good

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  • June 1, 2018 at 9:34 am #6578
    spencel
    Participant

    “The Scriptures declare all that He made to be good, like Himself, — good in Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual universe is good, and reflects God as He is.” Science and Health p. 286

    Good (from Webster’s online): Honest, uncorrupted, valuable, useful, moral, right, benevolent, kind, highest worth, perfect, beneficial, virtue, firm, not weak, complete, opposed to wicked, wholesome, faithful, fidelity, wise, calm, abundance, satisfied

    Last week’s Lesson mentioned good 10x, this week it is 12x. I have struggled with the concept of what it means to be “good.” Looking at the definition I realized it was how I defined the word that got me into trouble such as people pleasing, compliant, cover up, well-behaved, don’t rock the boat, let wrong rule the right, conformist, don’t say no, don’t make mistakes, self serving, etc.- the things I had to do to be “good” for those around me. None of those qualities are in the definition of good. Actually I was not being “good” according to the true meaning. This led to a state of thinking of self-deception which is hard to break, believing I was good when I wasn’t and the deep quilt when I didn’t do what I thought was good. There is such great contrast to Abraham’s true goodness and Ananias’ deceptive appearance of good in last week’s lesson. Abraham was obedient to God. Ananias was self-centered.

    I see now I was on a mission impossible in trying to be “good” by human effort and standards. It has been a relief learning only God is good. Getting a better understanding of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings is helping me learn how to live a life of integrity and reflect God’s goodness.

    June 1, 2018 at 10:26 am #6579
    Susanne
    Participant

    Thank you for this post. After coming to Plainfield, I needed to grow a backbone, and the teachings here helped me do it.

    Before, I was self-defeating in my non-questioning willingness to be a doormat–as you mentioned “people pleasing, compliant, cover up, well-behaved, don’t rock the boat, let wrong rule the right, conformist, don’t say no, don’t make mistakes, self serving, etc.” Ha! How this made my life a living hell (although everything looked smooth and pleasant from the outside). At one point I realized I had misplaced loyalties in people–I simply didn’t realize that the center of my life, my focus, should be God and my relationship to Him. It seems obvious now, but how I had struggled, going round and round as if in a hamster cage repeating the same mistakes–until the veil over Christian Science that had been blocking me was peeled away the very first time I walked into the Plainfield Church. The strong teachings in this church have set me straight (it took several years) to the life of good that God has in store for me and for each one of us!

    June 3, 2018 at 8:55 am #6596
    Michael Pupko
    Participant

    Sounds to me that both of you have had trials being “good” (small ‘g’ thus mortal basis) prior to learning at Plainfield. I’ve spent most of my life being on the opposite side of most conventional doctrines based on ‘moral’ principles (please note small’m’). From what you say being ‘good’ is a train wreck and I guarantee you from my own experience that being ‘moral’ is a huge train wreck. The solution is to simply reflect God’s Good and Moral Principles; something I’m still trying to figure out. Any time I start from ‘Moral’ things have a way of working out for good in spite of ‘me’ whereas when I start with ‘moral,’ well, hang on for the big crash:)

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Love is the liberator.