Testimonies of Healing

I would like to express my deep gratitude for two experiences that were milestones in my progress in Christian Science. The first occurred when I was in boot camp during the Second World War.

From earliest childhood I longed to understand God. I wanted to find a religion I could use every day, one that would answer my deepest questions and offer hope for salvation from the strife and suffering that dominated my childhood years.

I often like to begin my prayer for myself with this spiritual truth from Genesis in the Bible: God made man in His own image and likeness (see Gen. 1:26).

About three years ago, the nail of one of my big toes became ingrown. The condition was painful and affected the whole top of the toe.

I have so much to be grateful for that I cannot put off writing a testimony any longer. When my older son was about five years old, he became covered with insect bites during a short camping trip.

I have been a Christian Scientist all my life and have loved it every step of the way. During my childhood and teens I had many convincing healings—some with the prayerful help of a Christian Science practitioner and several through my own spiritual treatment alone.

During my growing-up years, God was presented as one who punishes and sends to hell those who come short of God's requirements. Although I loved the Bible and learned the stories of Moses, David, the prophets, and Christ Jesus and the disciples, there was much I didn't understand about the Scriptures.

Christian Science has been an anchor in the lives of members of my family for five generations. It began with my two grandmothers before the end of the last century, and it is continuing today in the lives of my grandsons.

Before my wife and I learned of Christian Science, our young son contracted pneumonia. A doctor treated him.

I was raised in a non-Christian religion. When I was a teen-ager I stopped doing my prayers, however, because I did not understand the sentences I had had to learn by heart in those prayers.