Recently, our two-year-old daughter tumbled down a steep flight of stairs in our home, landing with a jolt against the wall. I heard her begin to fall and was able to reach her as she landed. Lifting her gently into my arms, I carried her back upstairs, declaring aloud that God was her Life and all was well. At my request, my husband, who is not a Christian Scientist, called our friend who is a Christian Science practitioner. I did not hear the conversation; but my husband came over to where I held my daughter in the living room and calmly and gently, yet firmly, stated: "All is well. She is fine." With that, my daughter stopped crying, and within a few brief moments, was happily splashing, giggling, and singing in her evening bath. There was never a mark, a bruise, or a complaint from the fall.
Still, I felt the need to pray to see that there could be no harmful aftereffects. As I prayed that evening, I thought of the following statement from Science and Health: "The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development" (p. 547). As I pondered this, I saw very clearly that my daughter, a lovely God-idea, could never fall in God's estimation— or anyone else's! Praying with this understanding showed me what I needed to heal.
Just the week before, I had enrolled our daughter in a weekly music class for preschoolers. Since our daughter was two, the teacher placed her in the younger of two classes. When I attended my daughter's first session, it quickly became evident that the class was structured at a level below her learning abilities and failed to hold her interest.
