Author: annalisakronman

Injuries from child’s fall healed: Truth was there first

My eight-year-old daughter came in from playing outside one day, very scraped-up and in pain from a fall. We prayed with the truths we had learned in our study of Christian Science. Christian Scientists and others, all over the world, study The Holy Bible, along with Mary Baker Eddy’s major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, on a daily basis. These two books gave my daughter and me the foundation from which to pray in that moment of need.

Essentially, we prayed to see what God sees. Since God is perfect and can only see perfection, God was seeing my daughter’s perfection right then and always. Because God can’t be injured, neither could she, since she reflects God’s perfection at all times. God’s child is a spiritual idea at all times, and an idea can’t be damaged or in pain. As a spiritual idea of God, she could never fall out of that perfection.

The healing came that same day when we realized that the truth of her unfallen perfection was there first, and that this appearance of injury was only a counterfeit-picture, a lie about God’s child. After all, the very nature of the counterfeit of anything is that a counterfeit only presents itself after the original has been established. Otherwise, the counterfeit (something not authentic) would be the original. The counterfeit claims authenticity, but it will never have any, because it is not the original. It can’t be first because the truth is first. The pain stopped, my daughter went out to play, and the scrapes healed up shortly after.

That angel thought about the ‘truth being there first,’ has helped with many challenges over the years. In the Bible, in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, we read that God created man (man, woman, and child) in His image and likeness, and He gave us dominion over all the earth. That first chapter in Genesis also tells us that everything God made, was very good! This is the truth that was there first and forever, and can’t be opposed by an opposite claim (counterfeit). The perfection of God and man is always intact and secure, and it always has been. When the counterfeit picture tries to tell us something different, we have but to cling steadfastly to ‘perfect God and perfect man.’ Then we are seeing what God is always seeing about us. I love the Bible passage from Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”, and that expected end is harmony.

With much gratitude,                                                                                                                                                     BM

 

 

God’s Love and guidance is ever-available

When traveling in unfamiliar countries, it is always comforting to know that we are never outside of God’s care, protection and guidance.  That wherever we are, the Christ, Truth is present.

While on a game drive in an African country, our jeep was returning to the camp after dark.  I needed to wipe my nose and didn’t realize until we had light at our camp, that my nose was bleeding profusely.  There were strict rules and time schedules at the camp.  We were not allowed to go to our cabins unaccompanied by a staff member, because of the animals we might encounter.  It was dinner time.  As I turned to God in prayer, I felt His presence, care and guidance.  I spoke with the camp manager, assuring him I was all right, but needed to go to my cabin at once.  There were not other Christian Scientists in the group, and I didn’t want the others to be concerned.  The manager let me go alone to my tent.  On the way I was rejoicing in that and realizing God’s complete control over every bodily function.  It took some time for the bleeding to stop.  I prayed to not be concerned about being late for dinner or arousing fears of others of my situation.  I was grateful to feel calm, assured of Love’s provision for every need.  I was able to return to dinner on my own, a bit late and with no comments from anyone.

I am so grateful to Mary Baker Eddy for discerning and sharing the underlying laws of harmony and good on which Christ Jesus based his healings.  In her book, Science and Health, she tells us how we can utilize these laws to heal and resolve any problem. My gratitude to God for His love, care and guidance is boundless.

DH

Prayer cancels pain

One evening while I was preparing for bed I suddenly felt a lot of pain.  I immediately turned to God for help and began praying with the ideas in the Scientific Statement of Being, one of my favorite paragraphs in Science and Health (p. 468).  I then began to think about the answer to the question, “What is man?” also in Science and Health (p. 475).  I began to feel calmer, but was still very uncomfortable.  I asked God to help me and to tell me what I needed.  I heard, “Be still.”  This was quite a request because I was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t seem to sit still.  But I made myself stop moving.  I remembered the beautiful solo that was sung at my sister’s wedding, which is from a verse in Psalms, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  As I was being comforted by the words in the solo, I heard, “I am able to impart….” I recognized this phrase as a statement in Mrs. Eddy’s writings but wasn’t exactly sure of the whole passage.  I knew it said something like “I am able to impart health and happiness.” I realized that it is man’s purpose to impart (communicate, make public, proclaim, give, bestow) health and happiness.  And man is able to do it because he reflects the ability to do it.  I am not personally the source of the ability to impart.  That was a relief.  And why, I asked, do we have this purpose?  And the answer came – to glorify God.  Our whole reason for existing is to glorify Him in everything we think, in everything we say, and in everything we do.  This increased understanding of man’s whole purpose for being, of my purpose, filled me with joy.  I promised to begin to question and examine everything I did.  Is this glorifying God?  How is what I am doing glorifying God?  I was so absorbed in promising God I would do this that when I checked back, I realized the pain had just turned off, as suddenly as it had started.  I was so grateful! The next morning I looked up the statement that had come to me.  It is from First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 165 and it reads, “Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness and this is the rock of my salvation and my reason for existing.” My reason for existing. The very reason man exists is to impart – to make known, to exemplify what God is.  And how do I do that?  By making sure that I am living as close to Him in thought and action as I can.  That day I questioned myself often, and identified the spiritual qualities in each activity I was doing.  I even caught myself when I felt impatient with a boy in my son’s swim class. The question practically yelled in my thought, And how is this thinking glorifying God? Woops!  Since then I have challenged myself to continue this, and I am happy to say I am catching thoughts that aren’t consistent with my purpose to glorify God.  I am also more conscious of God and am in better touch with Him as I go about my day.  What a wonderful healing!  I am very grateful.

H.B.

Illness While Driving Overcome

My husband and I drove to his university, about an hour and a half from home, for a 50th reunion weekend.  Events filled both Friday and Saturday, ending quite late each night.  I’m the designated driver after parties, and because of commitments, we had to drive back home each night.  The Friday night drive went fine, but as we started the drive Saturday night, I was feeling quite ill.  I had had little sleep in the days leading up to that weekend, and that lack of sleep, plus an active two days, hit me as dizziness, weakness and nausea.  As I drove through a rainstorm along crowded, unfamiliar freeways (“with the drunks out in force” as my husband assured me), I struggled to stay focused on the task at hand, praying firmly about God’s control.  Nevertheless, as we approached a long bridge over the bay, I seriously considered taking an exit and stopping somewhere until I could feel better.  But I knew my husband would be very alarmed.  And more importantly, I knew that God’s presence, strength and caring would not be any closer or stronger off the freeway than they were right where I was.  So I kept on, literally praying myself across that bridge, singing silently the hymn that assures us that “everlasting arms of Love are beneath, around, above.  He it is who leads us on; His the arm we lean upon.”  My conviction of God’s control grew steadily and I knew that no material circumstance (lack of sleep, storm, high winds, dangerous roadways) could weaken that control or prevent us (and everyone on the road) from safely reaching our destination.  When we arrived home, I was feeling so good that I was awake for two more hours, taking care of household things.  What a comfort it is to know that we are never outside of God’s care and the harmony of the spiritual creation that we live in every moment — and that we can turn trustingly to that care when we need it most.

C.O.

“Kingdom of heaven at hand”

In Matthew 10:7, Jesus states that “the kingdom of heaven at hand.”  This instruction from our Master to his disciples is a topic I had been studying specifically for a few weeks.  I was fortunate to find a few very good articles on this topic in past periodicals in our Reading Room.  Two of these articles were extremely inspiring.  Both entitled “Kingdom of heaven at hand”, one is by Robert Dolling Wells in the Christian Science Journal of December, 1959, and another by C.W. Chadwick in the June, 1905 Journal, page 153.  Chadwick emphasizes that Jesus’ mission was to show that salvation was to come in this present world and the distinguishing feature of that mission was to teach mankind the practical proof of the truth of this concept of “heaven at hand”– here, now.  He taught that heaven was not achieved by a state called death.  Why else would he have come to earth to urge men to “repent” and “believe the gospel”?

These ideas were ringing in my thought when I inadvertently tried to run through a glass door on my way to a tennis match.  After bounding back from the blow to my nose and forehead, and after a few confused thoughts, I regained my sense of “repentance”—changing my thinking—and re-established the “kingdom of heaven at hand”, refusing to accept that this kingdom included injury.  I began the match, but in a couple of games I began to feel neck pain.  My first thought was, “Aren’t you glad you refused to accept the idea of injury in God’s kingdom!”  Within minutes all sensation of discomfort or evidence of injury was gone.  I was very grateful.

H. C.

Effects of scalding water spill on skin healed

I had a lovely healing today.  As I was doing a cleaning project in the kitchen, the thought came: “If God didn’t make it, I can’t know it.  If God doesn’t feel it, I can’t feel it.”  I pondered this as I went about my task.  All of a sudden, some steaming water I was using to clean some equipment spewed out over my forearm.  At that moment, the phone rang, and it was my friend with her Wednesday readings she wished to read to me.  Her topic was “Rise up and let the Christ Lead you to the Living God.” She didn’t know of my need, but read me the citations from the Bible and Science and Health, by Mrs. Eddy.  Whole-heartedly agreeing with the presence of the living Christ, and cherishing that earlier message about if God didn’t make it, I can’t know it, I found myself instantly healed of any bad effects from contact with that scalding water.

M.L.

Prayer Heals Foot Injury

A few summers ago I was moving some debris and rocks out of the creek near our cabin in an effort to clean up an area that had the possibility of damning up. My footing was unsteady and the rocks, slippery wet. In the course of this work I inadvertently dropped a very large rock/boulder on top of my tennis shoe-clad foot. I could feel that something was not right immediately and hobbled off to the side and sat down. In those next few minutes I realized that I had a choice. I could accept this as an accident that had the potential of sidelining me for days, maybe weeks, OR claim my freedom from harm just as Jesus and his disciples did in their healing ministries.

Many times in my life, God’s loving care, direction, and supply have been made apparent in very practical ways. In one short week I was to fly to Denmark to visit with my daughter who was in a school program there. We had already made plans for an active seven-day bicycle trip around that country during her break. You might say I was very motivated to again witness God’s goodness, and fast!

Here are some of the ideas that came to me:
Healing as Jesus healed is demonstrable today, and he expected us to follow his example:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:12-14)

“And these signs shall follow them that believe”…(Mark 16:17)

Jesus was never impressed by sin or overwhelmed by suffering:

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him… And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” (John 9:1-3,7)

My “problem” was an opportunity to be closer to God:

Rouse ye, rouse ye, face the foe,
Rise to conquer death and sin;
On with Christ to victory go,
O side with God, and win!
(Christian Science Hymnal #296)

Upon removing my shoe, the foot had already started to swell and was turning colors but I knew healing progress was occurring because I felt calm and expectant of good, and although very painful at first, it was now much less so and soon not at all.

In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures on pg. 424, Mary Baker Eddy states from experience that

“Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.”

And on pg. 397,

“When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, “I am hurt!” Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real. Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be.”

I continued to listen for “angel” ideas that affirmed God’s all-goodness and worked to shut out any arguments to the contrary. In less than three days my foot was normal in size, almost back to a natural color and I had complete mobility. Consequently I had a lovely bicycle adventure in Denmark, all the sweeter knowing that God’s loving care was my only “rock”!

LRR

Testimony of healing of “frozen shoulder”

This past Tuesday evening I got up off the couch after watching a couple of TV programs,  and discovered that I couldn’t lift my upper right arm without shooting pain.  I tried moving my arm in different ways and continued to feel either an almost total lack of strength or acute discomfort.  Almost immediately I started to worry about what had caused this,  and also what effect this would have on future activities,  from a tennis match the coming weekend to an overseas fly-fishing trip scheduled for early November.  I wrestled with both the pain and the worry throughout the night.

On Wednesday morning I told my wife that I was having the difficulty, because it was clear that I was favoring my right side.  She asked me to try to raise my arm (I couldn’t, without pain) and turn my wrist and hand to the left, as if I were pouring tea.  I couldn’t do that either, without pain.  My wife told me that the symptoms were just like a condition that she had previously experienced, called “frozen shoulder”,  a condition which had required several months of physical therapy to achieve a return to freedom of motion.

I was determined to deal with the issue by turning to prayer.  I had experienced a healing, through prayer alone, of a similar condition about 5 years before, although it took a number of months to regain freedom of motion.

Later that morning I started to read an issue of the Christian Science Journal.  There was an article* that seemed to address my situation beautifully.  The article used the Biblical story of David and Goliath as a metaphor for conquering the fear of illness (or any other condition posed by mortal mind).  It talked about each of David’s five smooth stones as representing a counter-thought to the challenges of fear and mortal thinking.  Here was some great ammunition for dealing with this physical challenge!  There was another article that talked about the perfection of my spiritual identity that provided additional support for my thinking.

I like to think of God as the power that created the universe—a creation that I find easy to conceive of as unimaginably vast, and the power to create it as infinitely strong.  Coupled with that power are qualities that give meaning to all life:  Love, and Truth, or Justice.  This always builds my confidence that whatever my material condition may appear to be, not only is it unreal and temporal, but as God’s reflection I possess the infinite power to reduce any such false claim to its native nothingness.

I realized that I needed to clearly and consistently establish this understanding of divine power in my consciousness.  I had to be “on patrol” to guard against negative suggestions that kept floating into my thoughts—that the shoulder condition could impede right activity—that a healing could take a long time—etc.  I’ve always found that reminding myself “What is God thinking here?” and continually asking “Is this God’s thought?” tends to keep me on the right track.  So over the next two days I really concentrated on being the metaphorical porter at the door of my thought –a modern day “thought bouncer” whenever negative suggestions seemed to come to mind.

The very next day, Thursday, the shoulder seemed to have improved markedly, and by Friday I was able to resume my full range of normal activities without any evidence of stiffness or pain or inhibited movement.  The change was so quick, and so complete,  that I was truly overwhelmed,  not only with relief and gratitude,   but with a profound appreciation for the incredible power of prayer to God to heal.

*“Inevitable Health”,  Julie Ward,  Christian Science Journal, November 2009
The first stone was the idea that “Disease has no scary name—its only name is nothing”.  The second was “Disease has no place—it’s never on the body, but is merely a suggestion of mortal mind”.

JS

Cat Healed through Prayer

I have found that Christian Science heals animals as readily as it does people.

Years ago, my elderly cat became quite ill. After praying for some time, and seeing little visible result, I reluctantly took the cat to the vet. He took an X-ray and concluded that something was wrong with her kidneys. He told me that the best thing I could do was to keep the cat well hydrated and gave me some equipment to help do that. I brought the cat home.

After a few days of trying the water treatment, there seemed to be little beneficial effect, so I discontinued it. I decided to redouble my efforts to find a solution through prayer, and asked someone else to pray with me. This prayer led me to see my cat more as a God-created idea than I had considered before. I reasoned that cats express grace, balance, delicacy, and intelligence. Like all of God’s creations, they must be immortal and indestructible, since God cannot create anything unlike himself. Consistent attention to these kinds of thoughts made a huge difference in my outlook, and in my cat’s health. She recovered, and lived at least another year with no recurrence of the problem.

I am very grateful.

CHK

Migraine-like Symptoms Healed

I have occasionally been faced with the symptoms of migraine headache, and turned to spiritual truths for usually quick healings. Last year, however, I felt the symptoms rising during the afternoon but didn’t take the time to turn to God and His perspective of my perfect wholeness as His child. My husband and I were to attend the ballet in a nearby city and I insisted on going, praying half-heartedly on the way. But during the first half of the performance, I had to leave my seat, and at intermission told my husband I couldn’t continue. We left to take the hour-long subway ride home. Once in the train station, deep under the city, I felt even worse — unable to stand upright and nearly overcome with nausea, aching head and bowel discomfort. I dreaded the confinement of the train ride ahead. In desperation, I called my Christian Science teacher by cell phone, even though it was after midnight in her time zone. I was only able to say I was very ill in a subway station and need help. She immediately reminded me firmly that I was never separated from God and His care, right there and right now. All I could do was listen, but I felt somewhat better as she continued to talk. She agreed to continue prayerful support for me. So I hung up the call and we boarded the train. The ride felt interminable (including some unexpected delays). I kept my eyes closed and my thoughts focused on every truth about God and His creation (me) that I could think of. And a steady stream of inspiration did come. By the time we arrived at our home station, I was much better. And within the first few minutes of the car ride home, it was suddenly as if a weight was lifted off my head, and I was completely free of every symptom. I happily told my very-worried husband and he was much relieved — and I very extremely grateful to God and for the instant, loving support of my teacher.

C.O.