Recently, I suddenly found myself choking on a mouthful of food. With difficulty, I was able to call out to my husband for help. He immediately came and joined me in prayer, as he, too, knew that turning to God was our quickest avenue of help.
As I struggled to breathe, I felt overwhelmed with panic. Yet at the same time many encouraging thoughts came to me during those 15 or 20 minutes. I thought of the Bible verse "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10). So I reached out to know His presence, power, and availability as a help in every extremity. I prayed for the strength to remain calm so I could listen clearly for God's direction as to what to do. I realized that when I allowed only calming ideas from the divine Mind into my thought, I could breathe better.
After several frantic moments, we both agreed that our hope needed to strengthen into solid conviction of God's power. I thought of Jacob's ladder, with thoughts from God "ascending and descending on it" (see Gen. 28:12). I focused on this ladder of spiritual ideas from God rather than on the problem.
