A FEW YEARS AGO I experienced severe pain in my face that affected my mouth, jaws, ears, and eyes. One night, suffering greatly, I heard my wife putting our toddler to bed, and realized I should be helping to get the other children upstairs. I went downstairs and asked the children to get ready for bed, and they did. While on my way to the staircase, I collapsed. Although I never lost consciousness, the intensity of the pain made it difficult for me to move. My wife and my daughter helped me to bed.
As we were all quite shaken by my condition and knew I needed immediate help, my wife asked my fourth–grade daughter to read to me from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, a book we have turned to for healing ideas many times. As my daughter stumbled over some big words, I laughed. Thinking that I was laughing at her, she left the room in tears. As difficult as it was to walk, I went to her room, apologized, and asked her to forgive me. I told her I was now ready to listen to her read to me with my whole heart.
She began once more. I asked her to slowly read to me one word at a time, so I could gain meaning from each word. She slowly read a phrase at a time, then a full sentence. She read with a child's innocence and I listened with a childlike trust.
