I am very grateful to have been raised in a home where Christian Science was practiced, for Christian Science has always been a way of life for me. As a child and teen-ager I had many occasions to use this Science. One of the first times I remember really praying for myself was when my permanent teeth came in and were crooked. One of my top teeth was turned back, so that when I smiled the tooth couldn't be seen. Through prayer alone the teeth were straightened.
When I was in junior high school I was overweight. I knew that I could either diet or rely on prayer to heal me. I chose prayer. I realized that the obesity was a false belief that needed to be healed, and that simply going on a diet would not heal the false belief.
Since I felt far from beautiful at that time, my prayers and the study of Christian Science were directed toward understanding what beauty really is. Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (pp. 247-248),"The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious freedom of spiritual harmony." This statement was a guide for me. I saw that matter, mortal existence, is an illusion, and that true beauty comes from Soul, God. As I gained an awareness that Soul was governing me, I became confident that I naturally expressed beauty, harmony, and joy, qualities derived from Soul.
