During high school, I had asthma and had trouble breathing whenever I was in a new environment. I received prayerful support from my parents and a Christian Science practitioner, and I was confident that I would find healing.
When the breathing problem occurred, I often found comfort thinking about this line from the Christian Science Hymnal: “In atmosphere of Love divine, / We live, and move, and breathe” (No. 144, adapt. © CSBD). This meant to me that my location didn’t determine my health, because rather than being subject to an earthly environment that could change from good to bad, I was maintained in God’s spiritual atmosphere, which is unchanging, calm, and free.
I would also pray with this quote from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you” (p. 571). Instead of human “hatred,” I thought of human, or earthly, conditions. A change in the wind, new pets in the area, overexertion, the season, and my physical location were not factors that could affect a spiritual idea—which I knew I truly was. No earthly cause and effect, material belief, or fear could touch me, since I was sheltered in the safe haven of God’s love and care. These ideas always brought relief in the moment, but since the problem would return, I realized I required deeper spiritual understanding for a complete healing.
