Of Good Report

Once while getting ready to attend a members’ meeting in my branch church, I heard a grumpy thought in my head that said, “Being a church member is no picnic!” Not a particularly healing or constructive observation, I quickly realized, so I took a moment to reconsider my understanding of and feeling for Church, which Mary Baker Eddy defined in part as “the structure of Truth and Love” ( Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583 ).

I boarded my connecting flight in Atlanta, Georgia, and settled into my window seat, ready to take a short nap on the last leg of my journey. When my seatmate sat down, we exchanged smiles and greeted one another.

I had been serving as First Reader in my Christian Science branch church and had only three Sundays left for the completion of a three-year term. It was my habit to arrive at the church about an hour before the beginning of the service.

A JSH-Online reader comments on Carol Kingstrom Rounds’s “Practice, Practice, Practice” Journal blog: Dear Carol, I appreciate the candor in your article “ Not selfish or depressing . ” It is so helpful to read how your search changed from a “sad, gloomy” struggle to being “sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , p.

Several years ago I joined an interfaith Bible study group, and some fellow members of my Christian Science branch church participated with me. Through this activity, we learned how many lovely individuals there are in our community who place God at the center of their hearts and homes.

As a child, I remember vividly that our family never passed by the scene of a car accident without doing two things: We determined that there were adequate “helping hands” at the site to assist those who might need aid. (Usually we were not needed because emergency services had already arrived.

Lois Carlson, a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science from Chicago, participated in a JSH-Online live chat titled, “The Christ-power behind forgiveness. ” This excerpt from the chat has been adapted for publication.

While I was attending a Christian Science testimony meeting one evening, there was a period when no one stood up to testify. I wondered why we were all there that night.

Until recently our Christian Science branch church had a bunch of wonderful kids who preferred to play in childcare on Wednesday nights rather than attend the Wednesday evening testimony meetings. The “regulars” were four girls—Amelia, Danika, Ellen, and Michaela.

The town of Norwood, a working-class suburb of Boston, held its 11th annual street fair in early September 2013, and I had an opportunity once again to volunteer at our Christian Science Reading Room’s table. In real estate it is said that location, location, location is everything, and our Reading Room has a prime spot on Main Street, where there is an abundance of business and pedestrian traffic.