EARLY IN 2006, an open sore appeared on my forehead. I covered it with an adhesive bandage, but over the period of a couple of months, the sore continued to grow larger and became inflamed. I began to deal with the fear of incurability or the need for surgery, and realized that although I had prayed for myself using passages from the Bible and Science and Health, I hadn't actually treated the situation thoroughly and systematically through Christian Science.
This system of healing teaches that because God is our only source and that everything He created is good, all discords, including disease, are the effect of false beliefs about God's creation. These mistaken beliefs can be healed by understanding the spiritual truth about them. As Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). I also recalled Mary Baker Eddy's description of Christian Science as "one intelligence, analyzing, uncovering, and annihilating the false testimony of the physical senses" (Retrospection and introspection, P. 30). So I turned to God, divine Mind, to uncover and eradicate the error I was experiencing.
I prayed with the synonyms for God explained in Science and Health— Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love—and considered my own spiritual identity as the reflection of each of these aspects of the divine Being. I prayed to know that I had "the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16), which knows only good; my substance reflects Spirit, and therefore is wholly spiritual; Soul is my identity rather than an accumulation of matter; Principle is governing every aspect of my being rather than a law of matter; I am the manifestation of eternal Life, which knows no disease or death; Truth uncovers and casts out whatever is untrue; and Love is guarding, guiding, nurturing, every detail of my experience.
