I should like to try to put into words my heartfelt gratitude for the Father's tender and ever-present care. From early childhood, I had the privilege of attending a Christian Science Sunday School. When I reached college age, however, I became very dissatisfied with my studies. Nothing interested me, and I became very much discouraged. At this point, I began to drift away from the truths which I had been taught in the Sunday School and was lured into the habits of smoking and social drinking.
After struggling for two years to find myself, I decided that I might as well leave college, for it was doing me no good. Thinking that the military service might help me find a career, I joined the Air Force. However, nothing that the service offered appealed to me. It looked as though the situation was hopeless, and I resigned myself to what I thought was going to be a life of uncertainty.
As a result of this attitude the smoking and drinking habits became worse and worse. Other bad habits were beginning to establish a hold upon me also. I did not seem to be the same person who was reared in a Christian Science family. Suggestions had persuaded me that what I had learned in Sunday School might be all right for others, but that I could not be helped in Science, and so I might as well forget about it. Many times during this dark period a still small voice whispered the healing truth to me and adjusted situations which to mortal sense might have been seriously harmful to me. Also I made rapid advancement in the Air Force. However, I did not recognize the source of my protection and welfare, but attributed the advancement to good luck.
