It is quite impossible fully to express my gratitude to God for our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, and for our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, through whose untiring efforts Christian Science was given to a waiting world.
There have been numerous healings in our family when we have turned to God for guidance as we are taught to do in Christian Science. We have experienced protection from accident and wrong decisions many times. On other occasions, effects of accidents have been healed, supply has been provided, and sickness and pain have been overcome.
How thankful I am to have lived in a home where Christian Science was studied and demonstrated and to have attended the Christian Science Sunday School until the age of twenty. I am grateful too that my husband is a Christian Scientist and that we, through our understanding of Truth, can rejoice in the challenge of raising a family and of everyday living.
One morning my eyes apparently were not functioning properly, for I could see only part of each object at which I looked. Mrs. Eddy's definition of "eyes" came to thought. It reads in part (Science and Health, p. 586), "Spiritual discernment,— not material but mental." I reasoned that as spiritual discernment comes direct from God, Mind, it cannot be impaired or destroyed. Therefore nothing could interfere with man's perception and understanding of the truth. Of much help in my overcoming of fear was this statement in a Christian Science Sentinel: "A temptation to fear is not our fear."
Soon I started to study the current Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly. Many of the passages were familiar, and the parts I could not see clearly could be supplied from memory. The reading of other passages required much patience and tenacious holding to the truth of man's perfection as a child of God.
While reading the Bible Lesson, I recalled these words of our Leader's from "Miscellaneous Writings." They were a source of much help and inspiration (p. 277): "No evidence before the material senses can close my eyes to the scientific proof that God, good, is supreme." It required three hours to complete the lesson, but when I reached the last section in Science and Health, I was able to see every word clearly. There has been no return of the difficulty, although I read and type many hours at night. How good God is!
On another occasion I was asked by a relative to help overcome a condition of hemorrhoids. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 393), "Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have no pain nor inflammation." Within a week the healing was complete.
At another time I suffered from a backache that grew progressively worse during a period of several months because I would not take the moment required, when the error clamored for recognition, to think clearly and truly about the condition. Instead, I would brush it aside with the thought that I would work on it when other things demanded less attention.
One morning the pain was especially severe. Before studying the lesson for that week, I strove to realize that it contained the Word of God, that this Word is the only power, and that it does awaken and heal. This sentence from Science and Health was very helpful (p. 170): "Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress." I accomplished my work joyously that day, rejoicing in the clearer understanding of substance I had gained from the lesson. That evening I realized that I had been completely healed while studying it.
My gratitude for the cherished blessing of class instruction and for the inspiration gained from the yearly association meetings knows no bounds. I am thankful for membership in The Mother Church and a branch church and for the selfless devotion to duty of The Christian Science Board of Directors, as well as of the other workers at headquarters, and for the contributions of the writers for the periodicals. I often remember too to be thankful for every earnest Christian Scientist who strives to be obedient to Jesus' command (Matt. 5:16), "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." — Wichita, Kansas.
