Some years ago, I was diagnosed with several medically incurable illnesses, including multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia, a painful muscle disease. Several excellent doctors were trying to help me, and I had tried homeopathic remedies on my own, but there was no cure. One morning, the front page of the newspaper ran a story about a woman who, with medical assistance, had committed suicide the previous day. This woman had had fibromyalgia for many years. I thought about this for several days. Then I decided to make one last attempt to get help. I decided to call a Christian Science practitioner.
I understood that I did not have to accept this as a reality.
The practitioner and I met and agreed to work together. She prayed diligently for me. I read Science and Health and the Bible, and I studied the Bible Lesson. The practitioner worked very hard to get me to see that I was the perfect and loved daughter of God, that I was His likeness, as the first chapter of Genesis makes clear. I was amazed at how little she thought of medical verdicts. She said that the medical diagnosis was based on an educated belief, and had never been about my true, spiritual identity. More than once, when things seemed too difficult, I told her I was giving up, but she never accepted this as my real thinking. And on several occasions, when the problems seemed particularly severe, she stayed up most of the night praying for me.
