“I wasn’t able to think about or do anything else than pray for a number of hours.”
/Our son has been friends with a group of six boys since kindergarten and the parents have become good friends, as well. Last year one of the moms of this group was visiting a relative in the hospital and later became ill with MRSA, which is known in the medical field as a drug resistant infection. Her husband called it the big one. She was in the hospital for months. There would be great hope when they tried a rare new drug, but then great disappointment when the drug failed. This happened over and over. At one point she was able to come home, but only for a few days before she became ill again and was readmitted to the hospital. During this time, we often helped care for their son so that the husband could be with the mom. One Sunday evening when the dad came to our house to pick up his son, he was especially discouraged. It startled me to see him like this and I realized that I needed to pray. I had just started reading the book We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Vol II for our assignment and one thing that came to me when I sat down to pray was a reminiscence from Jennie Sawyer that said:
In Mrs. Eddy’s class instruction to teachers, she has said:
Practitioners of Christian Science should keep informed of the new names that the medical world is constantly giving to the different ailments the human body is subject to, for each name conveys to the mind of the patient an increased sense of fear and danger—as though some dread and deadly disease had been discovered. The Christian Scientist, knowing that the name imparts added fear, must be on the alert to meet and undo the old claim under its new name, otherwise the patient’s fear is so far increased that the practitioner’s treatment does not overcome the supposed new disease. (p. 27)
So I refused to be intimidated by MRSA and I just knew that MRSA wasn’t God, wasn’t powerful, and wasn’t real. There wasn’t anything out there that could separate this mother from the love of God or from being with her family. God’s will for her was only good and I knew that included her coming home to her family. Love and Spirit was all there is and filled all space.
I prayed along these lines for a few days and soon felt confident that she was all right. Within about a week she returned home healed and has remained that way. This was about a year ago. They had a Christmas party last December that I made sure I didn’t miss. We were all very grateful to have her back!
A few months ago, one of my husband’s sisters had to cancel a family reunion scheduled at her house because she wasn’t feeling well and had a wound that wouldn’t heal. Her much beloved dog had also passed on around this time. She was in and out of the emergency room several times and trying different medications, struggling with pain and with adverse reactions to the drugs. She was unable to go to work during this time. This went on for a few weeks and then one day she called wanting to update her beneficiary information. She sounded grim. I immediately called one of my other sister-in-law’s and found out that she had been diagnosed with MRSA earlier that day. I told her that I would pray. I’m sure I prayed some that day, but it was two days later on a Sunday that I really felt impelled to get to work on it. I wasn’t able to think about or do anything else than pray for a number of hours, but finally I found peace and knew that she was all right. The next morning she emailed the family and said, “Feeling much better going into work a little late.”
And she’s remained fine—even installing hardwood floors in her house with a friend, which is something she has wanted to do for a long time.