I did not have the opportunity to attend a Christian Science Sunday School much after I reached the age of twelve. As I grew up I gradually drifted away from Christian Science. Some years later, after my marriage and at a time when I was expecting our second child, I was employed as a bookkeeper and receptionist for a group of physical therapists. In this position I came into daily contact with many children and adults who were suffering from various muscular diseases, deformities, and illnesses.
Mrs. Eddy asks (Science and Health, p. 248): "What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model?" Further on she states, "The result is that you are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline and deformity of matter models." This seemed to be my situation, for I was very impressed with these physical problems. However, Mrs. Eddy goes on to give us the perfect solution. "To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives."
After our son was born he developed what appeared to be a severe problem. When he was about two weeks old, upon examination of the child by a pediatrician, we were told that our son's head had grown extremely large in the two weeks since his birth. The pediatrician expressed great alarm that this could be what was known as water on the brain. Since there was no cure for this problem, my husband consented to having treatment for our son in Christian Science. The Christian Science practitioner we contacted told us to work with this statement (Science and Health, p. 550): "God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men." She encouraged us to cling to the thought that our son could not be changed from his original state of spiritual perfection because God is the Life and intelligence that formed and preserves him. This truth so uplifted our thoughts that a month later the pediatrician saw our son and stated that his head had stopped all excessive growth, and there was no evidence of any abnormality. My husband and I were most grateful for this healing. However, since my husband was not a Christian Scientist, our son was again taken for monthly medical checkups and all the usual shots and vaccinations. I did not at that time go back to the Christian Science practitioner.
