My first healing as a Christian Scientist occurred while my application for membership in The Mother Church was in progress; I was also becoming a member of a branch church for the first time.
I had struggled to break the tobacco habit. Various attempts to break it by using common methods had been of no avail. When I resolved to take a stand and to apply for membership, this meant that I must then be free from using tobacco. The day I obtained my application for branch church membership, I set the habit aside. There were no withdrawal effects; the desire to smoke simply ceased to exist. And although this permanent and immediate freedom from smoking is cause for gratitude, finding that freedom was but the precursor to another healing.
About a week before I was to be admitted into membership in our branch church, I developed an alarming and very noticeable infection in my left eye. On the Sunday I was received as a member, I had to wear dark glasses to ward off discomfort I was having when in the light.
