Our jointly-maintained Reading Room had been experiencing slow sales of The Christian Science Monitor for many months. A church member who designs our window displays chose to focus one window on the Monitor. This inspired the entire staff to pray more fervently about the Monitor's purpose and sales.
One day, I saw an article in the local paper about television violence. As I looked up the word violence I was surprised to find that my thesaurus's antonym for violence was "moderation." As I prayed I gained a better understanding of what moderation means from a spiritual point of view. I thought about an assertion in the article that televising violence is profitable, and suddenly I clearly understood that violence is never profitable so moderation must always be profitable. Just then I looked up from the sales desk and saw the copies of the Monitor for sale. And I realized that since the Monitor is the epitome of moderation in journalism, it simply must be profitable.
Discouragement about Monitor sales melted away, and I knew that the copies would sell that day. When there was one left with five minutes till closing, I was tempted to settle for less than complete sales. But when the clock struck the hour, I felt that someone really needed that copy, and I decided not to close out the sales register until all other closing activities were accomplished, prayerfully affirming that the Monitor was precious manna that would not go to waste that day. A few moments later an out-of-town visitor walked in, inquiring, "What is a Christian Science Reading Room?" After a nice talk, the man turned to leave and commented that he was going back to his hotel room to read since he didn't like all the violence on TV. I knew he was the customer for whom I was waiting! I said, "Well, you would like our international newspaper. It's known for its moderation rather than violence." He gratefully accepted and bought our last copy of the Monitor.
