WHEN I WOKE UP with a horrible headache and stomachache one morning, I didn't think I'd be able to go to school. I got out of bed and went to find my mom. I told her that I wasn't feeling well, and she asked if I wanted her to read me the weekly Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly, which has passages from the Bible and from Mary Baker Eddy's book Sentinel and Health. I said yes. I wanted to rely on God for healing, and I knew the ideas in the Bible Lesson would help me think about Him instead of about how sick I was feeling. As we read, my mom and I talked about the Lesson, but when we finished, I still wasn't feeling very well. My mom got up and called my school to tell them that I was sick, but that I might come to school a little later.
When my mom came back, I asked her if she would get my copy of Science and Health and a book that contains Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896. I had some favorite passages marked in Science and Health, and I asked her if she would read those to me. She did. I had another favorite passage in Miscellaneous Writings, so when she was done reading to me from Science and Health, I looked that one up. It reads, "Divine Love is our hope, strength, and shield. We have nothing to fear when Love is at the helm of thought, but everything to enjoy on earth and in heaven" (p. 113). I liked this passage a lot. I first read it at camp one summer, and it stuck with me.
Now, as I thought about it, I realized that if Love was "at the helm of thought," or guiding my thoughts, I couldn't be in pain or be ill. Love wasn't giving me those kinds of thoughts about myself. I also thought about how divine Love was my shield. Since Love was all around me, thoughts of sickness couldn't touch me, and I could feel energetic and happy and well.
