I recently had a sweet experience using JSH-Online.com. I had always heard that my great-grandmother became a Christian Scientist after she was healed. But I wanted to know more about her healing. I suddenly thought of looking up her name on “Journal, Sentinel, Herald Online,” to see if she had ever written a testimony that was published. So I searched, but there was nothing. Then I looked up her daughter’s name, and lo and behold, there was a testimony (see Cheryl Clingman Pflager, Christian Science Sentinel, September 1, 1923). Not only did this daughter tell about how her mother had been healed, but she also told how that healing had inspired her to study Christian Science for herself. She went on to tell how she, her husband, and her children had all been healed of various diseases and issues. One of those three children was my mother.
So here was a unique link to family members, allowing me to know them through their spiritual progress and gratitude. Though I had grown up with most of the people mentioned, I had not heard of these healings. I was inspired to express my own gratitude for Christian Science in writing. Here are two examples of how it has blessed me.
The first experience happened when my two sisters and I were very young. We had what my father thought was impetigo. He was not a Christian Scientist, and he’d had medical treatment for this problem when he was a boy. But he agreed that my mother, who was a Christian Scientist, could pray for us girls with a Christian Science practitioner.
I was inspired to express my own gratitude for Christian Science in writing.
My mother contacted a practitioner, who began giving Christian Science treatment, but no apparent improvement in our condition came for some days. Finally, my father said he would buy the medicine he had used as a boy. He did so, and walked out of the store with the little bottle in a paper bag. As he walked home, though, the idea came to him, “There’s no power in the bottle.” This came to him again and again, and he felt it to be true. When he got home, he told my mother he had bought the bottle of medicine, but our family wasn’t going to use it. So the practitioner continued to work on the case. The next morning, all three of us girls had not a trace of the diseased condition.
This so impressed my father (the healing effect of shifting from reliance on matter to Spirit) that he became a Christian Scientist. I have heard him share this testimony many times in various Churches of Christ, Scientist, at the Wednesday testimony meetings.
I had to fight discouragement, and hold to the fact that God really would guide me.
So I grew up where both parents, and my maternal grandparents, were Christian Scientists and gave us children good examples of spiritual strength and kindness. They also helped me prove some simple truths of Science in my own experiences. Sunday School teachers helped me understand Bible texts and stories, and make them practical. I also began to find and rely on ideas from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and to memorize and cherish some hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal. In my young adult years, fellow church members and Christian Science practitioners were also supportive of my spiritual growth. Gradually, I found I could pray for an inspired outlook when looking for jobs or homes, finding lost pets, and when there was a need for physical healing. Here’s one example of how a new, more spiritual outlook helped me.
I had a new job, but had moved across the country for it. The new area was quite expensive, so I felt I should look for a room to rent, rather than an apartment. But as I searched for a place that felt like a home, none of the rooms to rent seemed like a good fit, either for me or for the landlords. So after several weeks, I had to fight discouragement, and hold to the fact that God really would guide me, since everything about the desire to do well at this new job came from pure motives.
One weekend, I went to the town where I hoped to live, with the classified ads under my arm. But instead of plunging into the newspaper and starting the search process, I decided to go to the Christian Science Reading Room first, to study the Bible and some Christian Science literature. I wanted to feel really sure that I’d be guided by God every step of the way.
I sat down in the lovely atmosphere of the Reading Room and began to ponder ideas about home. Finally, I came across this text from Mary Baker Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896: “Oneness in spirit is Science, compatible with home and heaven” (p. 289). This was a truth that made sense, and that I could hold on to. It also reminded me that the answer would have to be right for the landlords, too.
So then I began my search. I went next door to an ice cream shop which had a pay phone. As I was sitting down at a table, with the classified ads spread out, the idea came to me very clearly, as if spoken, “Don’t look at the ‘Rooms for Rent.’ Look at ‘Apartments for Rent.’ ” I did, and there was an interesting ad. I phoned the landlord, went to see the apartment, and knew it was perfect—more than I could have hoped for.
Though it was a stretch for me financially, I managed. And as my paycheck gradually increased, the landlords did not raise the rent for a number of years. I ended up living there for almost two decades, appreciating everything about this special place, with much gratitude.
There’s nothing like the feeling that God is guiding our steps. It’s a certainty that blesses us in so many ways. I’m so grateful that I, along with my family, have been able to share accounts of healing in the Christian Science periodicals. And I have also relished the healing ideas shared by others.
