When I was a small child, my mother was healed in Christian Science of a severe nervous illness which followed the passing of my father. She became an earnest student, and I had the privilege of attending the Christian Science Sunday School until I reached the age of twenty. While I thereafter attended church services, I did not seek membership in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and for several years did not study the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly.
But divine Love is ever ready to put us back on the right path. A testing time came; and when I turned completely to God with the help of a practitioner, the need was met, and my thought awakened to the joy and privilege of living the truth as taught in Christian Science. Our young son was entered in the Sunday School, and I yearned for church membership and an opportunity to prove my gratitude.
However, the argument was very strong that I would have to give up many pleasant material experiences and that perhaps many friends would be lost. How gloriously wrong all this proved to be when a firm stand for Principle was taken and I was accepted for church membership! From that time more joy and happiness came into my life than I had ever thought possible. Church membership for myself and my husband has brought many blessings, including more friendships than we had ever known.
For many years the members of our family have all been free from serious illness. Most childhood diseases, so called, did not touch our son, and the few which did appear were quickly healed.
I have experienced instantaneous healings of a sprained ankle and a very painful throat condition. For four days during the latter experience I was unable to eat or even to swallow water without extreme pain. A consecrated practitioner was called, and help was given. One day I was in bed suffering extreme pain and was almost exhausted, having eaten nothing for several days. While the practitioner was talking to me over the telephone, voicing the truth, I was instantly freed. I got up, prepared dinner, and then ate with my family. There was no period of convalescence.
Lost articles have been found when it was realized that nothing is lost in Mind and when I listened for divine direction. Supply has been forthcoming in many unsought ways through our knowing that spiritual ideas are ever present and are the real source of daily supply.
I am very grateful for a lesson in obedience which led us to a home when one was needed, one which was better in every way than I had thought possible to find at a time of a housing shortage. When outlining and self-will were put aside and I said, "Father, where Thou wilt," the home appeared. Although it was in a locality I had earlier firmly refused to consider, thinking it too far removed from where I wanted to be, this one met our every requirement, and we were most happy with it and with the location.
Another testing time came when my beloved mother passed on quite suddenly. I felt that I had lost my best friend and adviser, but almost at once all sense of loss and grief left me when I refused to submit to self-pity and held to the truth that God is Life eternal, which man is forever expressing. The love she expressed as a reflection of the one Father-Mother God is always with me. The conviction, gained through years of study, that progress is infinite has been of great help to me.
I am most grateful for a harmonious home where Christian Science is studied and lived by each member and for membership in The Mother Church and in a branch church, where the opportunities for serving our Cause bring much joy and progress. Words cannot express my gratitude for the privilege of class instruction and the inspiration and unfoldment of the truth, which our association meetings afford. I am sincerely and humbly grateful for our teachers, practitioners, and all who work for our beloved Cause. The revelation of Mrs. Eddy has opened the way to an understanding of the Bible and of our true heritage as sons and daughters of God. My constant desire is to be worthy of the name "Christian Scientist."— San Diego, California.
