Employment and home—faith in the right outcome

We’d been living in the mountains of Colorado for eight years. It had been a wonderful place to raise our five children. But now, most of the children had moved on to college, careers, and families of their own. And my husband and I wanted to move back to New Mexico where our parents were living.

In logic, the move didn’t make much sense. My husband was gainfully employed, and we owned our home. Yet, after 25 years of sales work, my husband felt impelled to consider other opportunities—so did I. As a couple, we’d always made decisions by looking deeply into the spiritual truths concerning God and man. Our study of the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy had strengthened an understanding of God as both Father and Mother who always wants the best for Her children.

As students of Christian Science, we knew that it was important to examine our motives for such a move. So we began to pray.. We considered the following statement in Science and Health: “Unselfish ambition, noble life motives, and purity--these constituents of thought mingling constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence.” As we prayed together, we became more and more certain that our motives for the move were, in fact, pure. Family unity and love had always been of utmost importance in our marriage. We came to see that such a move would support not only our parents but would make it easier for us to help our children and grandchildren, who lived in the area as well.

Also, when we’d moved to the mountains, I’d given up a teaching career to stay at home. The possibility of going back to work with the same school system I’d been with in New Mexico came to mind. I thought it could be an opportunity for me to be of service to youth and the community beyond our family unit. All that winter, my husband and I listened to God and prayed for guidance. We strove to have faith in God’s goodness and knew from years of proof that we would be led to make the right decisions.

In May, I took a road trip to New Mexico to scope out the possibilities for a teaching job. While on the road, I remember pondering Mary Baker Eddy’s promise that “working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way.” But I had no immediate leads. Off and on through the summer, I stayed with my mother and applied with the school administration. Still, there were no teaching positions open. As summer slipped into autumn, I was not called for a single school interview. Everyone told me that all openings were being filled from “inside” the system. My husband and I considered giving up on our plans to move. But each time we talked, we became more convinced that our desires were not just a result of human will but were supported by a God-centered love, a desire to be of service.

In mid-October, still with no teaching job, I was visiting my mother again. This time, I went to sleep pondering a quotation on a plaque in my mother’s guest room. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It became perfectly clear to me that no matter how many people said there were no job openings or gave opinions on the chances of one opening up, a false concept of limitation couldn’t hide the divine possibilities. A passage from Science and Health backs up this idea, “A false sense of life, substance, and mind hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific demonstration.” No matter how late in the school term it was, I realized, and even though I hadn’t had one single interview, I could rely on the faith, or spiritual substance in Paul’s declaration. Faith would lead to the right outcome.

Early the very next morning, I was summoned for an interview at one of the smaller high schools in the district. Their drama teacher was resigning that week, and they need someone to take over her classes immediately. It was the type of position I’d hoped to find. And after all that searching, I ended up getting hired right away! The next afternoon was my first day, and I was privileged to choose the cast for the fall production (a play I was intimately familiar with). I began teaching classes by the end of that week.

The amazing thing was not just that I was now employed, but how beautifully that position developed as the years went by. My department grew, and eventually an expanded drama facility was a blessing to the multicultural community in that part of our city.

And how about my husband? Although he didn’t immediately find employment when we first arrived in New Mexico, as we continued to pray with the truth that “divine possibilities” included everyone, the way opened up for him, too. By spring, he was offered a managerial position training salesmen with the same company he’d worked for in Colorado. He had been rehired despite the fact that company policy was never to rehire people who had left. We were both able to be close by to our parents and children, supporting them and enjoying their company for dozens of years.

By not allowing limitations or a false concept of true substance to cloud our thinking, smother our faith, and hide God’s goodness, we were both guided into satisfying careers, and able to plan for retirement. I often go back to that statement: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” How grateful we can all be that those encouraging words have a universal application—they can transform our lives.

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