Author: alk

When I was growing up, I had a lot of ear problems. Earaches, infections and hearing loss all troubled me often. I had to wear special ear protection when I was swimming, and at school, I always sat up front because of my “special needs”.

When I started going to the Christian Science Sunday School, I began learning how to say no to error and to “stand porter at the door of thought” (from page 292 of Science and Health.) This meant that I could watch my thinking and reject hurting ears. I was beginning to see that that pain is a lie, a falsity about God’s loving creation. A lie is not real. It doesn’t exist. Learning these things made a huge difference in my life. The constant ear problems stopped.

Then, a little while ago, when my sister had her ears pierced, I decided to get mine pierced too. They were fine for a few days, then one morning I woke up, and when I looked in the mirror, my earlobes were so swollen that so that my earrings were completely hidden. I almost panicked for a split second. Oh not again! I said. I thought I was done with ear problems! And then I knew I was not going to get anywhere with that kind of thinking. I remembered that what I see in the mirror can’t give true information about how God sees me. I am God’s reflection, not the mirror’s reflection of pain and swelling. So then I sang some hymns and read and highlighted the Bible Lesson.

However, I was still thinking about my ears very negatively. And then I thought about how I cannot be sick, because God is not sick. Since God does not have ear problems, I could not have ear problems. I started to read the Lesson again, wanting to fill my thinking to overflowing with good thoughts and allow no bad ones. My new favorite Science & Health quote helped a lot too (page 242):

“There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality- to have no other consciousness of life- than good, God, and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses.”

In Sunday School, we had been writing out the steps in Christian Science treatment, and these helped too. This includes realizing that God is Love, Life, Truth, Mind, Soul, Spirit and Principle, and man reflects Him. Saying yes to this and no to pain helped.

I looked at my calendar and saw many good things to look forward to, including a Leadership Council trip to New York City and a school class trip whitewater rafting. Then I realized my ears weren’t hurting at all anymore. The error had been eliminated and replaced with a bursting, overflowing cup of positive thoughts. I realized I am perfect (including my ears). God has always been right by my side. I became fully aware that this is true.

I was so happy. Even though the doctor had to take care of getting my earrings out, all the pain was gone. I felt so free, letting go of the untrue, unreal junk that had been infecting my thought. I have learned from this experience that when I let my thought and decisions be guided by what I know is really true about God and man, I can rise superior to anything that lies in my path. Yay!

H.A.

I was with my seventh grade Spanish class in Mexico and I had a chance to pray for myself. I was snorkeling off the coast of a beach with my classmates and my snorkeling mask broke. I kept choking on salt water so I had to keep my head out and out of the water. I was having a bad time, my eyes were getting irritated, and I was really cold.

I started singing “O Gentle Presence” (a hymn by Mary Baker Eddy)* to myself, focusing on the thought that God was there with me and protecting me. Originally I was afraid of snorkeling because my friend in the group before me had gotten stung by a jellyfish twice. But I kept denying this fear and frustration with my mask.

After a couple of verses of the hymn, I started to feel a warm presence around me, I stopped shivering, and I was able to fix my mask. After that, I saw three sea turtles, a barracuda, and lots of fish! This experience has showed me that I can pray on my own, even if my mom isn’t there to help. This has really proven to me that God is ALWAYS there and listening and taking care of me.

A.R.H.

*Mother’s Evening Prayer

by Mary Baker Eddy

O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;
O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight!
Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.

Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.

O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.

Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;
In that sweet secret of the narrow way,
Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:
“Lo, I am with you alway,” — watch and pray.

No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;
No night drops down upon the troubled breast,
When heaven’s aftersmile earth’s tear-drops gain,
And mother finds her home and heavenly rest.

I am grateful that Christian Science is applicable in small events as well as big ones.

Recently, when I was driving down to serve in our church’s Christian Science Reading Room (a place where anyone can come to find out about Christian Science), my nose began to bleed.  Since I was driving on the highway and there was no place to pull over, I held tissues to my nose and continued on to the Reading Room.  When I arrived there, my nose was still bleeding, and I said to the church member who was serving there, “I need your help!”  She put her arms around me and said, “You’ve got it, Honey!”  She lovingly and confidently prayed to see me as safe and whole in God’s arms, rejecting the notion of inharmony in the form of a nosebleed.  Right away, the bleeding stopped, and I was healed.  I was able to take over my duties at the Reading Room, as I had set out to do, even more confident that what we are offering here is of immeasurable value to any and all.

I am so grateful for God’s healing power.

BVV

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was diagnosed with an infection during one of my regular checkups. As the obstetrician handed me the prescription, I had to tell her that I really didn’t intend to fill it and would be relying on prayer instead. She explained that this infection was thought to increase the risk of premature birth and that she didn’t feel comfortable with my decision. After some discussion we came to an agreement: she would re-test me during my next visit, and if the infection had not cleared up I would take the medication.

During the next month I tried again and again to pray about this situation, but met with mostly frustration. I was feeling pressure to get rid of the infection and not spending much time listening to God. Finally one afternoon as I was sitting quietly in the bathtub, I reached out to God and humbly asked for His guidance. At that moment, I felt as if a warm light was shining down on me in the tub and my thought was filled with a message from God – He simply told me to be grateful for the child. I realized that I had been having a lot of feelings about my coming child (mostly anxiety) but gratitude was not at the top of the list. From then on, every time I thought about the baby I was “bathed” in pure gratitude.

At my next checkup the obstetrician tested my sample herself, as she didn’t want to waste time waiting for the lab results to get me started on the medication. When she came back into the room where I was sitting, she was shaking her head and saying, “I looked at it twice under the microscope myself, and there was no sign of the infection!”

This healing was an important one to me for a couple of reasons. First of all, anybody who has ever been a mother can tell you that anxiety can be a constant companion if you let it. Learning to replace anxiety with gratitude has been a go-to skill for me countless times over the last twelve years since this healing occurred!

Secondly, a logical person might wonder why I would choose to spend a month praying about a minor medical problem that could be treated with a $10 prescription in about 5 minutes. What I learned is that the infection never was the issue. It was just a little warning sign that I needed to get closer to God. And no amount of effort is too much if it gets you closer to God.

HH