ONE AFTERNOON when I was a teenager, my sister and I were having fun chasing each other around the house. We both went to playfully kick at each other, when our feet collided and I heard my toe snap. I didn't give much thought to it at the time, because I was excited to go to my friend's house for a slumber party that night. But later that evening as we all sat around watching movies, I looked down at my toe only to find it extremely swollen, purple, and disfigured, although I don't recall there being a lot of pain.
The next morning my dad picked me up, and I needed help getting into the car since I could not walk at all on the foot. When we got home my father, who was not a Christian Scientist, wanted to call the "Ask a Nurse" hotline to see if he needed to take me to the hospital to have the toe set. I asked him if I could pray about the situation while he was on the phone. He had always been very supportive of Christian Science, so he agreed. But he asked that I put my foot in a tub of cold water, which I did.
I was a dancer at the time and had been preparing all year for our dance recital, which was just one week away. The thought of not being able to dance in the recital after so much work loomed in front of me.
