I submit this testimony in thanks to God for the Christ shown to us by Jesus and in the teachings of Christian Science. These teachings mean everything to me and are at the core of my life.
I am immensely grateful to early Sunday School teaching for giving me a conviction of God as ever-present Love and of man as the expression of God's being, and how helpful this conviction is in everyday affairs! This was a stabilizing force when I went through a turbulent and emotionally troubled adolescence. Unhappily married parents, lack of joy at home, and fear of rejection caused depression and morbid introspection and gave me a discouraged outlook. Through persistent study of Christian Science this whole picture was obliterated and was replaced with a spiritual conviction and understanding of God as Father-Mother, of man as spiritual idea and not the offspring of human parents, and of home as the expression of heavenly qualities.
When my parents finally became divorced, I was buoyed with the spiritual conviction, "Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love," as Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 477). I saw my identity was not just an accumulation of childhood experiences layered one on another. I found I could trust the fact that my roots and foundations were in Spirit and found in spiritual concepts, and not in familiar associations with material objects, such as a house and its furnishings, or in a particular geographical location. This was a strong lesson in Christian Science—that happiness and purpose are included in our expression of God-given qualities, such as meekness and love, and do not come from persons, places, or things.
I am still seeing good results of this healing in a most happy and stable marriage and family life, with two children (from whom I've learned many spiritual lessons); and especially in freedom from a heavy emotional investment in husband or children. Knowing that all good comes from God and is permanent, eternal, I can love my family dearly and fearlessly.
Before my marriage, and a year prior to my parents' divorce, I had a physical healing that enabled me to cope with the mental and emotional aspects of their divorce. It was a healing of what a skin specialist called the worst case of dermatitis he'd ever seen. The company I worked for requested that I seek a medical diagnosis and treatment, because it was feared I was allergic to the chemicals with which I worked. I agreed to go (to ease the deep concern at work), but received no medical treatment. I knew that I wanted Christian Science treatment.
Through the prayers of a Christian Science practitioner I felt the touch of the Christ. Mrs. Eddy defines "Christ" in Science and Health (p. 583): "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." One by one, several character traits, which I saw as incarnate error, were put off to a large degree through the effort to accept the Christ revelation of myself as the expression of God, Love. Some of the traits were: extreme sensitivity to others, shyness, feelings of inferiority, and the tendency to criticize. I clung to the truth that identity is our reflection of God. I knew that mental effort must be made to be conscious of this. And I was healed in several months not only of the skin condition (and I continued to work with the same chemicals) but also of the notion that our nature and character can be less than the reflection of our loving Father-Mother God. This continues to unfold, and other negative traits of character are being put off.
Soon after the healing of dermatitis, and while I was still single, I took a four months leave of absence from work to go to Mexico for a course of study. While there I spent time thoughtfully reading the Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy. The following statement stood out to me with great clarity, and loving it I kept it much in thought (No and Yes by Mrs. Eddy, pp. 10-11): "Eternal harmony, perpetuity, and perfection, constitute the phenomena of being, governed by the immutable and eternal laws of God; whereas matter and human will, intellect, desire, and fear, are not the creators, controllers, nor destroyers of life or its harmonies." The truths in this statement were a great protection to me in standing for the high moral values of Christianity in a free-living expatriate community, and also when my roommate and I became ill simultaneously. We went to bed, feverish and unable to eat or retain food. About a week later a friend came to call on my roommate, and she asked him to fetch a doctor.
The doctor came, and after examining us both, said that we had infectious hepatitis and prescribed medication. My roommate decided to return home and took her medicine with her. As the door shut behind her, I reached for my medicine, the Bible and Science and Health. Although very weak, I sat up and read the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly. I expected great good from the lesson, and I received it, for I was healed. My full strength had returned. There was no period of recuperation at all. In a day or so the yellowish cast to the skin and to the whites of the eyes had gone. The confident expectation of the fulfillment of all good, which is what trust means to me, brought quick and radiant healing.
Since then I have had healings of influenza, painfully swollen knee joints, and have enjoyed comfortable childbirth. These healings came about solely through the application of Christian Science, either by my own understanding or with treatment by a practitioner.
I am thankful to be a member of a branch church. Serving in many capacities, including that of Second Reader, has brought me much growth out of a mortal sense of self and of a personal view of others.
I am indebted to Mrs. Eddy's explanations of God and the spiritual nature of man, and for class instruction, where these explanations came alive and close and rang true. My heartfelt thanks go to each one who works for humanity through the Christian Science movement.
South Harpswell, Maine
