SINCE I WAS A TEENAGER, I'd suffered with severe cramps and other symptoms accompanying my monthly period. I prayed on and off about this, with some results, but I still struggled with being basically out of commission for at least a day every month. This was inconvenient, as it often interfered with school and with family trips. But worse, I felt terrified every time that part of my cycle rolled around.
One morning, when I was a freshman in college, I was once again dreading my period. I imagined all the severe symptoms I usually experienced that could last for hours. I could already see myself missing my classes and meals for the day. Sure enough, almost immediately after picturing them, I began to experience those very symptoms. That's odd, I remember thinking. As soon as I thought it, I experienced it. That's when I began to see the very clear connection between my thoughts and my physical condition. They were so connected. And yet, I knew from my study of Christian Science that only infinite good, God, could govern my thoughts and, therefore, my experience.
I decided to spend some time in my dorm room, praying about this issue in a more specific way than I ever had before. As I prayed, I had such a desire to listen to God's side of the story. Was this condition coming from Him? How did he really see me at this moment? I yielded my thought to the truths I was learning about in Christian Science—that my being was not both material and spiritual. That God knew nothing about suffering and, therefore, could not create it. I also challenged the belief that I had to tolerate this condition.
As I prayed, I began to feel very palpably the presence of the Christ in my consciousness. A beautiful light filled my thought, and I felt so loved and comforted. At that moment I recognized an absolute divide between the unreal, mortal man and the real, immortal man—one limited and sick, the other unlimited and whole. The Christ was showing me that only one of those pictures could be true, and now I understood clearly which picture was me. I was God's image, a spiritual idea full of good qualities—and perfect health.
This passage from the Bible encapsulates the way this truth revealed itself to me: "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).
I was completely healed at that moment, and all discomfort melted away. I got up from my bed, dressed, went to lunch, and attended the rest of my classes for the day. In later months, I experienced some mild symptoms, but they were never as severe as they had been in the past. I had gained a confidence in challenging the symptoms, and eventually, over the next year or two, I was completely freed—the cramping and nausea never again returned.
This experience showed me that God's thoughts are really the only true basis of my thinking, that the Christ is a permanent presence in my consciousness, and that yielding to this Christ results in health and harmony.
WINCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, US
