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.
