Church membership and freedom from a dependency on tobacco and alcohol—these were my deepest desires some twenty-five years ago. I had been raised in Christian Science, and I'd been taught in Sunday School that using any addictive, mind-altering substance was definitely not in keeping with the teachings of Science. As Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy states: "The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery of the body. This normal control is gained through divine strength and understanding."
By my early teens, however, I had come to believe that as long as I treated others lovingly, was honest, and acted morally, a little smoking and drinking would be just a harmless and temporary deviation that I could stop at any time. Well, before long I developed a serious dependency on these "harmless" activities, and I also realized that I wasn't so loving and moral anymore but rather was increasingly immoral, selfish, and unkind. I felt dissatisfied and unhappy; "I want out," I thought. Not yet being consistent in my study and practice of Christian Science, I tried to use human willpower to stop these activities, but this proved repeatedly unsuccessful.
I began attending Sunday church services at a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and studying Science regularly. A great desire to become a member of The Mother Church and to support the movement more actively welled up in me. One morning, while studying what was to me an especially inspiring Bible Lesson, I caught a glorious glimpse of my true identity as the unfallen, upright child of God who never had smoked. What relief and wonder I felt! The healing was immediate, complete, and has been permanent, as there has not been even a tinge of temptation or desire to smoke in the twenty-five years since.
