Christian Science has been a part of my life since I was born. In our home we were taught from early childhood what our spiritual nature is, and that God is divine Love and divine Mind, willing and able to save and heal. We were taught that through prayer we had a solution to every adverse circumstance, and could always be happy because this was so. Now that I am an adult I really appreciate what a gift Christian Science is to give a child. But, of course, I had to find out if, as an adult, I really believed it and could practice it.
Two years ago I had a physical healing which was a turning point for me. I suffered from an undiagnosed, painful abdominal disorder. It kept me awake at night. The fear was more intense than I'd ever experienced. I studied and prayed on my own and asked a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. One day when I called her in a moment of fear, she asked me exactly what was I afraid of. I said I was afraid that my body was in control of me. She replied that I was thinking of myself as a material body and not as a spiritual idea. She emphatically told me that my body could do nothing to me without my consent. This startled me. I realized I had to stop thinking about the material, stop worrying about the body, stop fearing the pain, stop picturing sickness and a depressing future for myself. I had to change my basis of thought completely from the material evidence gained from the five senses to the spiritual evidence gained from faith, inspiration, and spiritual understanding.
Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 259): "Immortal ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious results." This took a lot of discipline.
