“Stomach Pain Dissolved”

This past year I learned that some of my relatives hold some thoughts I don’t share, and I have struggled with feeling very disappointed and sad about this. I was talking about this situation on the phone with a friend and started to notice myself getting a bit agitated. And then my stomach started to hurt. I tried to pray about this while going for a walk with my husband, but it felt like all I could do was concentrate on walking, which seemed to take some effort. When I mentioned this to my husband, he suggested that I think about what I love about one of these relatives, which helped to break the unpleasant (and maybe unlovable) sense of her I was holding in my thought. 

When we got home, I was still uncomfortable and tempted not to fulfil my role as online usher for my branch church’s Wednesday evening meeting, but then I thought about Mrs. Eddy writing, “Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.” (SH 385:17-18.) This was a turning point. I also thought of Skip mentioning that it is always good to turn to the books sooner rather than later, and so I opened my Bible and Science and Health. In the Bible, I read about Peter visiting Cornelius and Peter telling him that he knew God was “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) This made me realize I needed to stop thinking of my relatives as being in a different (bad) category for holding differing beliefs – that we are all (with no exceptions) God’s children. In Science and Health, I was in the middle of reading about the trial regarding liver complaint, and that, too, helped me see through the claim of stomach pain. By the end of the Wednesday meeting, I was free of all pain, and I was even able to give a testimony of this healing. Thank you, God!