When I was young, I always had trouble breathing when the fog rolled in where I lived in Santa Monica, California. While the condition wasn’t diagnosed, the symptoms were consistent with asthma attacks. They would usually pass within a day or so, after I stopped all physical activity or got a good night’s sleep.
But one summer when I was about 13, I had more trouble breathing than usual. In fact, it got to the point one day where I couldn’t lie down to sleep, and I couldn’t eat.
My cousin was visiting at the time, and he suggested that my mother call a Christian Science practitioner for Christian Science treatment. The practitioner she called was my Sunday School teacher at the time, and an excellent one. When she asked to speak with me, I began to cry, for reasons I don’t remember, and the practitioner said she’d drive over to our house.
When the practitioner arrived, we sat on the couch in the living room, and she talked to me about God and His love for me. I don’t recall anything she said in particular—it was so long ago—but I remember feeling a sense of peace. I also remember her showing me the Cross and Crown seal on the front of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. She didn’t stay long, and after our visit I walked with her to the front door and thanked her. At that point, I realized I was breathing normally.
I have never had another attack in the 60-plus years since. In retrospect, I think the spiritual truths the practitioner shared with me about God’s nature and goodness, and my perfection as His child, were stated so clearly and lovingly that I was able to grasp them. And that was that. I was instantaneously healed.
For the past 40 years or so, I have lived in Colorado at high altitude (over 5,000 feet). I typically play tennis once or twice a week, and I have no trouble whatsoever with breathing. Also, none of my six children, who were raised in Christian Science, has ever had symptoms of asthma, which I think speaks to the completeness of this healing.
