Articles

MY HUSBAND, RYAN, AND I had always thought we might have a family some day, but I just didn't see how a child would fit into our lives. We'd been married for ten years and both of us had busy, productive careers.

MY FIRST THOUGHT upon waking that morning was: "It's almost Christmas!" But it wasn't a thought that made me happy. Instead, I felt overwhelmed by all the holiday preparations I still needed to finish before my grandsons arrived.

AT THE AGE OF 14, I fell in love with the Bible. So much so that I even carried a small pocket version around with me every day.

I THOUGHT IT WOULD JUST BE an ordinary ride home. But when my friend, who had kindly offered me a lift, asked me if I wouldn't mind stopping off for a meeting on the way, I agreed.

WHEN I FIRST MET DAN (not his real name), he was serving his sixth year of a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Australia. He was what you'd call a really bad egg.

I WAS SUFFERING from a kidney ailment that I'd had for over ten years and the pain often awakened me in the middle of the night. It was during one of these nights that I switched on my shortwave radio and came across a program on Christian Science.

WHEN I TAUGHT our young son to ride a bicycle without training wheels, I put him on the seat and told him to grip the handle bars and start pedaling. Determined to succeed, he glared ahead, stiffened his pose, and started the wheels in motion.

ON THE SUNDAY just before Christmas in 1888, a sermon written by Mary Baker Eddy was given in Boston's Chickering Hall.   See Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp.

GROWING UP WASN'T ALWAYS STRAIGHTFORWARD.  I'd been ill for several years through my late teens and early twenties—first with a toxic parasitical illness, and then with clinical depression.

ONE YEAR, INSTEAD OF BAKING ME A CAKE, my mother celebrated my Christmas Day birthday by giving me a pot of poinsettias. "Now we're not talking about age here," she said when she gave me the flower pot with its big red bow.