Christian Science has always been my way of life. My mother sent us children to the Christian Science Sunday School, where she felt we would learn to be loving and kind. Then when my brother couldn't be cured by the medical profession of a severe case of eczema, Mother turned wholeheartedly to Christian Science. My brother was permanently healed. All medicines were thrown out, and we depended on Christian Science from that time on for the healing of all our difficulties. Many years later my little sister was healed of polio that had caused complete paralysis on one side. (The testimony relating this healing was published in 1955 in the Christian Science Sentinel.)
I'd like to share the joy of my experience of childbirth. The birth of our second child was particularly significant, because our first child's birth had been so difficult. The last six months of my second pregnancy I visited a practitioner each week in order to spiritualize my thought in preparation for the birth. The practitioner helped me understand better the harmony of divine action, the nature of man made in God's likeness, and the need to express spiritual qualities in my daily life.
At the time things were especially challenging for me because of a distressing relationship problem. But when the practitioner explained to me that my thinking must be kept pure for the sake of the baby, I realized that any unkind thoughts I might have about another person, any selfishness, any hatred, must be replaced with love. I began to work to improve my concept of God's man, who is upright, good, loving, perfect. As Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 69): "God's children already created will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false and material disappears."
