Demands upon one's time and attention are varied and pressing, legitimate and illegitimate. Which demands should be yielded to and which resisted is a question constantly facing us as Christian Scientists. It can be rightly decided by our understanding of divine Principle, coupled with the resolve to place first its exalting demands. This understanding and resolve lifts the earnest student's thought above compliance with overmuch recreation and exacting personal demands which conflict with spiritual growth. The understanding of man's relation to divine Principle and its government opens to us the way for greater fruitage and also human freedom.
Singing like a refrain in the thoughts of the conscientious, cheerful homemaker is the assurance that her household tasks are primarily mental, and that she is blessed by their accurate and orderly execution. The more excellently smaller tasks are carried out in a spirit of loving service the more certainly will the opportunity unfold for higher achievements. Perhaps the greatest love that can be shown in a home and outside of it is that love which helps individuals to develop their own higher nature and to respect this higher nature in those with whom they are associated. Buoyant and loving patience with oneself and others triumphs over resistance to spiritual demands.
In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 250), "I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results." Noble sacrifices signify compliance with the ennobling standards of Spirit in place of the degenerative standards of materiality. As the high demands of divine Principle are kept active and foremost in our consciousness as Christian Scientists, good results become apparent in our character, occupations, and environment. More and more does our clear sense of Spirit's demand for spiritual growth determine for us how and where we shall spend our time and to what high tasks we shall bend our energies as Christian Scientists. Thus are we led on, step by step, to the "grand achievements" which betoken an undivided love of good.
