Articles

1. Shirley Paulson began an earnest study of the Bible when she started teaching Sunday School.

ONE SUMMER EVENING at Pacific Beach as I paddled back into the surf to catch another wave, I noticed a fellow surfer riding toward me in a classic soul-arch stance: upright, back arched, chest out, hips forward, like a matador when a bull makes a pass. The surfer's technique was unlabored and elegant, like nothing I'd ever seen before.

I HAD, OF COURSE, SEEN REPORTS about the high rate of Palestinian civilian casualties during the intense fighting last year in Gaza. But the human side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict suddenly came into sharper focus when a college classmate of mine lost two brothers there—gunned down as they attempted to return home with their father during a planned lull in the fighting.

The Journal receives a number of contributions that, because of space constraints, we can't publish in full. In these pages, however, we can offer excerpts that we found inspiring and insightful—some spiritual "nuggets" worth tucking into thought.

WHEN ASKED, "WHY DO YOU RELY ON Christian Science for healing instead of medicine?" I immediately recall my first healing. When I was three, I had an ear infection that my dad felt should be medically treated.

MY FATHER WAS usually a snazzy dresser. However, in his free time, he preferred a pair of old overalls for digging in his garden or taking me on blueberry-picking jaunts in the woods.

IMAGINE GROWING UP as a child without fear, free to push beyond limitations, having complete confidence that God, being divine, all-powerful, ever-present Love, is always there to protect us and that suffering is not God's will. And then imagine this confidence being played out in immediate healings through my own prayers—at age seven, after falling on my glass jar of spiders, which broke into many pieces; at age eight, when I was stung by a swarm of bees one summer at Girl Scout camp; and at age ten, when someone accidentally poured a boiling liquid on my leg.

THERE IS A JAPANESE SAYING, Shoshin wasurezu, which roughly translates as "don't forget your original motivating spark. " Shoshin literally means "first heart.

Christian Science practitioners TONY AND JENNY LOBL recently talked with the Journal about their healing practices, and how their professional work as practitioners affects their personal lives. Tony is a contributing editor for the Journal.

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL my daughter attended wanted to instill a love of science in the students. One of its initiatives, a science fair for the youngest grades, gave each child an opportunity to choose a project to present to the class and the parents.