I've often laughingly said that a number of years ago God caused me to be a Christian Science nurse, so I’d be a better branch church member!
At one time, I was such a hotheaded church member that I walked out fairly often on Wednesday evening testimony meetings. Not because I heard objectionable testimonies—noooo. Because I heard nearly nothing during the testimony period except my own occasional testimonies. Surely, someone had evidence somewhere in their daily lives of God’s presence and goodness that they could tell about! Besides, wasn’t it unkind, unloving—rude, in fact—to the First Reader? The Reader had put together such wonderful readings, and our congregation’s response was— mostly silence? Plus, I wondered, how could this style of testimony meeting ever be attractive to the friends I wanted to bring with me?
Here’s where my practice of the Church Manual By-Law, “Christian Science Nurse” (see p. 49), revolutionized my thinking. At the time, I was a Christian Science nurse. And snooping around in a dictionary, I discovered that “to nurse” means “to cherish, to foster, to hold as dear.” Mary Baker Eddy pointed out, “An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceitful person should not be a nurse” (Science and Health, p. 395).
