A Handout · Soul: Another Name for God

Not the Impulse

A bad moment isn’t proof of who you really are. Soul — not your body, not your worst impulse — is the real, permanent source of your identity. An impulse is something you notice and outweigh, not something that defines you.

“Christian Science commands man to master the propensities — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty.”

— Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 405:5–11

Hatred→Kindness The pile-on, the freeze-out, the grudge — met with a small, real kindness instead.

Lust→Chastity The comparison, the curated image, the pressure to look a certain way — met with self-respect.

Revenge→Charity The urge to get even, to expose, to make them feel it too — met with charity instead.

Deceit→Honesty The version of yourself you perform online or out loud — met with the honest one.

Notice it. Don’t become it. Let something better outweigh it.

This week

One impulse from the list above that showed up for me recently:

What outweighing it — even in a small, real way — would actually look like:

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