One evening after supper my husband announced that it was going to be necessary for him to leave home. This came as quite a shock to me. Deciding to heal this discord through prayer, I went to see a Christian Science practitioner. He told me this was an opportunity. I didn't quite understand this at the time, since it would mean that I would have to raise two teenagers alone. But I tried to understand and trust the truths he shared with me, and I found encouragement in references from the Bible. A passage in Proverbs, for instance, says: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (3:5, 6). I also enjoyed reading the chapter "Marriage" in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, along with her article "Wedlock" in Miscellaneous Writings.
Oh, I had much to learn! My mother-in-law was living with us at the time, and I decided I just had to be more warm and loving. As any building contractor will tell you, you can't build on frozen ground. Next I remembered I had made a promise at our wedding to stick with the marriage for better or for worse. Sometimes things were worse rather than better, but again, I was determined I was going to work this out. What about that story in the Bible where the woman lost a coin and didn't give up until she found it? Also, the shepherd who went after the one sheep that was lost? I figured my husband was just like a little sheep that had lost his way—"Perchance unkindness made [him] so," says a hymn (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 315).
At one time he decided to go to California, and we were separated for a period of about four years. I prayed all the harder, knowing that one's reward is from divine Mind. I knew God was "working His purpose out" (see Hymnal, No. 82), and that, as the Bible promises, He would restore to me "the years that the locust hath eaten" (Joel 2:25). I worked hard to be patient and not get discouraged. I held to the fact that Truth always wins and a lie cannot stand. I prayed to know that there is only one law—God's law; that God is All, and there is no mental rupture, or division, in the divine Mind. Divine Love, God, can only be expressed in love.
