It was a shock when the examiner told me in my mid-twenties that my driver's license would be restricted because I needed glasses for distance perception. Each time I put the eyeglasses on to drive, however, I thought, "I don't want to wear glasses for the rest of my life." What could I do to change this? I spoke to a Christian Science practitioner about the restriction, and she assured me that it was better to wear the glasses temporarily and be able to see clearly and safely, but always to declare, when putting them on, that they were temporary. As a Christian Scientist who had relied on prayer for all my needs, I knew that my mental concept had to change if I expected to have a change in my experience. The body expresses only what we—consciously or unconsciously—accept .
I began praying in earnest, studying references and articles about vision, perception, discernment, light, and focus. One thing that struck me was the importance of light in reflection. Without light there would be no reflection. Science and Health says, "When Jesus declares that 'the light of the body is the eye,' he certainly means that light depends upon Mind, not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris and pupil, constituting the visual organism" (p. 393).
I prayed to enlighten my understanding of God and of my relation to Him. Was I seeing others as God created them—in His image and likeness? When I began challenging myself this way, I realized that I was critical of almost everything—people and situations. Recognizing what I had been doing was the easy part, though! Next came the hard part—changing a habit that until now I hadn't been aware of.
