About a month ago, while I was riding a thoroughbred horse at a posting trot, the horse tripped and I fell onto the ground. I immediately started praying from the spiritual basis that God, divine Mind, created all and that I could not be separated from divine Mind's protection; that both the horse and I were in divine Mind's protecting care. The spiritual fact that God's creation, reflecting God, is His perfect image and likeness kept my thought at one with God. After a few minutes of holding my thoughts to this spiritual fact and verbally voicing this spiritual fact as my prayer, I asked to get back on the horse and rode for about another forty minutes. There were no bruises, no pain, no injury, and no fear about getting back on the horse. There were absolutely no ill effects from the fall.
Last year I had two physical healings. The first healing was of a very sore throat. I could not eat any food and, at the point just prior to the healing, could drink only a little water at a time. Also, since I could only whisper, I had to cancel a speech at a Toastmasters Club meeting. On the fourth day of this experience, my sister called. When she heard my voice, she hung up in order to treat me through prayer. I was immediately healed, and called her back to thank her. I realized that I had held a belief that the cold wind could hurt me. I needed to pray specifically to dispel this belief. I prayed with the definition of man in Science and Health (see p. 591), and have since remained free of any physical woes from the winter winds.
I am also grateful for the healing support that is ours from consistently reading the Christian Science Sentinel, The Christian Science Journal, the Bible Lessons (found in the Christian Science Quarterly), and The Christian Science Monitor. Once while I was working the three-to-eleven shift at a Christian Science nursing facility, I felt fine when I went to sleep after work. However, instead of waking up at the normal time, I woke at two o'clock in the afternoon and was extremely weak. It was too late to call in to ask for time off from work, so I did my best to get there. But after an hour at work, I was unable even to sit up. I called the administrator of the facility and went home. I felt so weak, I just reached out to God and asked Him to protect and help me. I immediately fell back into a deep sleep. I woke about fourteen hours later, completely normal, without a trace of any physical weakness. I worked a very demanding shift and have not missed any workdays since.
