Lessons from caring for my pets

I’m grateful for the lessons I have learned from caring for pets over the years – lessons about faithfulness, tenderness, intelligence, trust, and persistence, among others.

Thirty years ago, I had a cat that loved exploring the neighborhood. I’d leave the back door open when I was home, but always made sure she was inside at night. For a while my roommate or I would have to walk the neighborhood in the evening calling the cat’s name to get her to come home. But when I prayed about it, I had a clear realization that the same Mind that guided me was guiding my cat, too. She could hear her own angels, and I could trust that God, divine Mind, would lead her. That very night when I went to the back door and called her name, she came running. From then on, we never needed to go further than the back door to let her know it was time to come in. She was always right there or came running.

Four years ago, I fostered and then adopted a cat who was quite nervous. She’d hide when anyone came into the house. She’d let me pet her, but she wouldn’t get too close. She’d never let me pick her up. I had been praying to see her as God sees all His spiritual ideas: a perfect expression of Love, of patience, tenderness, and dominion, with no material history to overcome, the outcome of divine intelligence, reflecting her divine source.

Then last fall, a couple from the neighborhood came over for dinner. This kitty went right up to them and was very friendly. This passage from Science and Health speaks to the change in her: “Mind’s creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness—yea, the divine nature—appear in man and the universe never to disappear (Science and Health, p. 509:25 Mind’s).

At one point this cat seemed to have daily epileptic-like fits. I would quickly pick her up and hold her closely until the shaking stopped. I prayed and declared out loud to her that she was secure in Love, safely cared for by God, good. He was omnipotent, supreme, and the only power governing her. And because she moved “in the harmony of Science, [she was] harmless, useful, indestructible” (Science and Health, p. 514:28–30).

With the help of a practitioner, she was healed of these seizures within a week. Subsequently, she was tremendously more loving and trusting. She enjoyed being held and was rather insistent about sitting on me or whatever I was working on, particularly the keyboard of my laptop!

Another time, this cat stopped eating and became very thin. I found this passage from Science and Health quite helpful: “The metaphysician, making Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to error and discord, has rendered himself strong, instead of weak, to cope with the case; and he proportionately strengthens his patient with the stimulus of courage and conscious power” (p. 423:18–24).

Skip’s editorial “Irrespective” also guided me: “Irrespective of is a potent phrase. It means ‘regardless of’ or ‘without consideration of.’…[The] fact is that what seems so material is essentially a conception or thought of things as material. Therefore it is possible for anyone to begin to leave an unreal, material basis of thought for thinking more from the standpoint of divine Spirit and its perfect expression in man….We see that we don’t have to measure our hope or possibility for harmony in accord with the complexity or ‘seriousness’ or length of duration of material circumstances. We have a new basis. Our ‘expectation is from him,’ as the Psalmist says” (“Irrespective,” Sentinel, October 13, 1986).

I was truly trusting that Mind would guide this sweet cat to do what was normal. I knew I didn’t need to “stand aghast” at anything that mortal mind suggested, because matter did not determine her being. Love gave her “might, immortality, and goodness,” irrespective of what conditions mortal mind suggested (Science and Health, p. 518:19–21). Soon she began to eat again, and much greater quantities of food.

Then another physical deformity seemed to appear. Yet it was clear to me to say no to the aggressive suggestion and yes to what I knew was true about her being. As Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, “Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claims over mortality and disease” (p. 395:6–10).

I trusted that I could leave Soul, God to do the healing. But I needed to be clear about the facts of being. I stayed laser-focused on what God was revealing of His power and goodness. I am so grateful for the daily inspirations that came and were shared with the practitioner. A few days later, there began to be a draining. When this dear cat would come to me, I knew exactly what was needed. She began to lean into me to help with the cleaning. Mind unfolded to both of us how to express dominion. All through this she purred persistently, evidence to me that goodness was very real to her.

There was more evidence of character transformation. This cat had always seemed very serious and didn’t choose to play with cat toys I put out. But now she began chasing and batting at things in a playful way. She had been confining herself to the first floor, but now she would sometimes run upstairs in the morning, as if to say, “Okay, where are you?” I am so grateful for the opportunity to see this cat’s true identity as one of the beautiful, tender, and true expressions of God’s grace.

Something else is becoming clearer for me: “The relations of…divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history” (p. 470:32).

Basking in God’s love heals long-standing pain

Around 2014, I began experiencing “attacks” in which my entire torso would feel great pressure. This occurred every several weeks and was frightening because of its strangeness and severity. Usually, I would call a Christian Science practitioner and the symptoms would fade within an hour. But there remained the fear of the condition returning – which it did!

I knew the condition was a false belief, but didn’t seem to be able to get a permanent healing. This went on for more than five years, and then it seemed to be compounded with stomach pain. I would get stomachaches nearly every day, and they often seemed to evoke the torso problem. These symptoms meant that I couldn’t wear clothing in a normal way and had to make all kinds of accommodations.

For three years, I worked with several practitioners off and on. The symptoms changed a bit, but nothing was healed and I was discouraged. Finally, I embraced a different approach: to stop praying about the illnesses and just focus on lifting my thought. Numerous practitioners and Christian Science articles had urged this way of working, but it took me several years to give up my determination to “heal the problem.” This lifting of thought happened in two ways:

1. The first, and most profound, was to start every spiritual session by basking in God’s love. Usually, I didn’t feel that love to begin with, so I would just sit there, calmly and expectantly listening and waiting to feel this love. Eventually it would come and feel real to me. I did this for many months.

2. The other thought-lifter was related to Mary Baker Eddy’s explanation: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals” (Science and Health, p. 476:32–2). Although I loved that idea, I seemed unable to apply it when facing real-life “sinning mortal man.” Instead of seeing the perfect man, I just saw the mortal man: selfish, sarcastic, impatient, dismissive, or whatever.

One day it occurred to me that although Jesus probably did “see” people who were lame, or blind, or diseased (after all, he could see they needed healing), he didn’t believe what he saw. I realized that the sinning man is like a dramatic mask that’s hiding the actual person. I don’t have to be fooled by that mask, no matter how colorful it is. Somehow this realization helped me be less impressed by personalities and character flaws.

These two changes in thought happened between the autumn of 2023 and the spring of 2024. One day in April of 2024, I realized that I hadn’t experienced either of those long-standing symptoms for many weeks or even months. I felt a quiet awe that what had seemed so problematic and permanent was now gone. I kept this to myself for a while, treasuring and supporting the healing.

Now, nearly a year later, I can report that both the stomach and torso problems are gone and haven’t returned – but the basking in God’s love has remained!

An angel message about correct attraction

In the past year, I have been grateful for numerous examples of relief from the various “niggles” that would seem to suggest themselves as complaints from the body. Christian Science gives one the authority to see these “niggles” as false impositions that need to be replaced with the Truth.

In a recent experience, my son and I were aided by turning to the one Mind. We were working together to fix the headlight on our car. YouTube videos were helpful, but none seemed to address the problems that we encountered in our endeavors. For example, nobody in those videos seemed to have trouble turning the headlight socket a 1/4 of a turn the way we did. I surmised that a pair of pliers might give us the grip we needed. But not only did the pliers not work, but I soon dropped them into the headlight well. Now we were in a pickle!

My wife came by to ask how it was going. With some humility I confessed that I had lost the pliers in the headlight well. “Why don’t you use magnets to pull them out?” she said. A helpful suggestion! But after some trial runs with magnets in a sock we found ourselves at an impasse.

Both my son and I were praying silently, knowing that there was only one Mind, God. I was remembering a testimony from church in which a member described finding himself in an isolated spot without a spare set of keys to open his car, and he was able to acquire them through prayer.

My son recalled a different testimony in which a member spoke about an article in one of the Christian Science periodicals. That article said that, like a bird that must stay in the air far above a hungry snake below, we must keep our thought uplifted, rather than slipping down to discouragement and self-condemnation. Our recent mishaps were trying to drag my son’s thought down, so he made a conscious effort to keep his thought uplifted as we worked at a solution.

Suddenly, an idea came to our son: Perhaps we were trying to attract the pliers with the magnets’ repelling poles, rather than their attractive poles. With that angel message, we turned the magnets around and were able to grab onto the pliers. Then my wife, who was coming by at that moment, was able to reach down with her thin wrist and pull the pliers out. Meanwhile, my son managed to get the light bulb out, and we finished the job.

We were overjoyed and exchanged how we had each turned to God in our time of need. We were so grateful for the feeling of God’s presence and the angel message that solved our dilemma.

Experiencing a change of heart

With Association Day approaching, I found myself worrying that I had nothing to share with our members and blaming myself for not being a more effective Christian Scientist. But as I worked with the references for this year’s address, I recognized that the belief of not having experienced healing was simply a form of animal magnetism. As Skip assures us, “Suggestions of lack of healing are not our own thoughts, but the imposition of the carnal mind” (“How to stop thinking thoughts that are not our own,” Sentinel, October 28, 1985). I soon realized that I did, indeed, have a healing that was worth sharing.

Last fall, I began experiencing shortness of breath and frequent, sharp chest pains that sometimes kept me awake at night. I found the symptoms alarming, particularly because both of my parents had suffered from heart failure.

I worked for myself for a while, but events in my branch church, where I was serving as Second Reader, were making me feel discouraged. When the condition did not yield, I called a trusted practitioner, who immediately agreed to pray with me. Over the next month, she was very supportive and shared a number of helpful ideas.

One particularly meaningful reference was Mrs. Eddy’s answer to the question, “Do you believe in change of heart?” It states, “there must be a change from human affections, desires, and aims to the divine standard ‘Be ye therefore perfect’; also,….there must be a change from the belief that the heart is matter and sustains life, to the understanding that God is our Life, that we exist in Mind, live thereby, and have being. This change of heart would deliver man from heart-disease, and advance Christianity a hundredfold” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 50:22–27).

My practitioner also shared these ideas from Mrs. Eddy’s unpublished writings (in the church archives): “Remember this fixed fact: You have no material heart. Your heart God gave you, and He governs all its functions. It cannot cease to act so long as God acts, for it is His reflection of Love. Let alone all sense of anatomy, and hold this true consciousness of yourself….”

She also shared some ideas that Mrs. Eddy gave to Laura Lathrop, which healed her: “Hurrying cannot affect the heart. It cannot beat like a trip-hammer nor perform its functions with difficulty. Hurrying cannot produce heart trouble. There are no unsound hearts. There is no slow nor hurried motion to the heart, no shortness of breath ascending stairs.” 

I worked with these ideas for a number of weeks. Although I did not have a specific “breakthrough moment,” by Christmas the chest pains had ceased and I felt a sense of peace. I am so very grateful for the support of the practitioner and for this proof of the efficacy of Christian Science.

Not gradual recovery, but complete spiritual healing

Last fall my husband and I were in Maine visiting family. It was a crisp day, so we walked through the woods to a place where the path dropped down to a beautiful view of a rocky inlet. As we were approaching, I slipped on a carpet of acorns and fell, immediately feeling a sharp pain in my leg. I knew I had to reject the thought of an accident before it took root in my thought. I sat where I was for a few minutes, doing my best to see that there could be no moment when I was separated from God, who gives all good, and therefore no moment of accident or pain. My husband sat on the ground beside me, and I know he was praying, too.

Although the pain was severe, I was able to stand. Slowly I walked back to our relative’s house, praying all the way. I reasoned with the Scientific Statement of Being, just striving to feel God’s presence.

When we got back to the house, I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray with me. She immediately pointed me to Mrs. Eddy’s statement about accidents in the textbook: “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.” We talked particularly about the second part of the statement: “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” (Science and Health, p. 397:12–22).

It felt very easy to believe in physics: I had fallen; something had happened to my leg. But I truly wanted to be faithful to divine metaphysics, to be confident in God as All, and therefore to see the goodness that an all-loving God would always be unfolding around me. Quite quickly, I found myself losing interest in the physical pain and reasoning spiritually about all the things in my life that I thought were “hurting” me, such as disagreements at my branch church, family drama, and the very divisive political scene. I took refuge in the image of God as the sun and each individual as a ray. The rays never touch or tangle; the only way they ever interact is through God, their source. This line of reasoning about not being “hurt” seemed to provide a healing path. For several days I felt I was making good progress. I was able to walk, although haltingly and still with pain. I was grateful for the progress, so I signed off with the practitioner.

Then I hit a plateau. For the next week or two not much changed, although I was praying daily. At a certain point I seemed to lose courage. I wondered if I should get a diagnosis or maybe physical therapy. Fast on the heels of those aggressive mental suggestions, though, came a true directive from God: Definitely—not maybe—I should be thinking much more about God. Humbly I asked God what more there was to learn.

Mrs. Eddy tells us, “to the material thought all is material, till such thought is rectified by Spirit” (Science and Health, p. 460:12). I saw that I needed to stop gauging my progress by the physical evidence. I deeply desired to put off that material view and learn more about God and my relationship to Her. I knew that if God is defined by the synonyms and I am God’s reflection, I needed to be much more rigorous in aligning myself only with those synonyms.

I had heard a Sentinel Watch podcast in which the guest spoke about the need to follow every “I am” statement with something that is true about God and myself as Her reflection. I made a list and kept refreshing it throughout each day:

• Because I reflect Truth, I am confident.

• Because I reflect Love, I am patient and gentle.

• Because I reflect Mind, I remember everything I need to know at exactly the right moment.

• Because I reflect Spirit, I am not distracted by materiality.

• Because I reflect Soul, I am beautiful; no adjustments are necessary.

• Because I reflect Life, I am energetic and curious, all day.

• Because I reflect Principle, I can stick with all of these truths.

Reasoning in this way about my completeness without any personality failings, I could feel my focus shifting. I was full of joy and gratitude. I was giving “thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever” (Revised Standard Version, Ps. 136:1). I cannot pinpoint a moment when the physical healing came, but I do remember that one weekend I went into the city for a dance performance and I limped from the train station to the theater; the next weekend, I was hiking in the woods without a single thought of pain.

That healing took place last fall. Since then, there have been no twinges or vestiges of the injury. This was not a gradual recovery such as mortal mind expects; it was a complete spiritual healing. Words cannot express how grateful I am for the learning that is the substance of every healing.

God provides plenty of pillars

In the January 2022 issue of the Christian Science Journal, there’s a “Spiritual Short” by Lesley Gort titled, “Are you a pillar of the church?” At times I have felt like a church “pillar,” but not because I’m important relative to anyone else in my branch church. As the members of my branch church have dwindled over the years, there seem to be fewer and fewer of us who are available and willing to do the necessary jobs.

In the Manual section titled “Church Organizations Ample,” Mrs. Eddy advises us not to involve ourselves with things that might stand in the way of our progress, since God “supplies within the wide channels of The Mother Church dutiful and sufficient occupation for all its members” (Manual, Art. VIII, Sec. 15, p. 45:1–3). In light of this advice, it’s clear that many suggestions that come to mind don’t really hold water: that we need to go to an after-work get-together on a Wednesday night, that we can’t teach Sunday School because we don’t have time to prepare during the week, or that we’ve already served on all the committees and need a break. I felt this issue was also a theme in the readings that A.J. Kiser gave us to study. 

But as Lesley Gort pointed out in her article, a pillar supports a building, which simultaneously shelters the pillar. “So a church protects its pillars as much as they support the church.” I have felt the truth of that so vividly.

At the end of January, I completed a two-year term as First Reader in my branch church. Although I read twenty years ago, it was so fresh to me now, and I felt inspired each week in all my preparations for Wednesday and Sunday. Church was, in fact, a protection to me during this time. Although I had some physical challenges, I was always able to serve at the appointed time without reservation and with great freedom. Once I had a heavy cold that had me blowing my nose and coughing seemingly incessantly, but when I was ready to go on the platform, there was not a trace of the problem. I also had a long-term problem with one of my ankles that gave ongoing shooting pain; yet every time I was reading, I was without pain and could attend fully to the service or meeting unimpeded. I had the help of a practitioner off and on for about a year. Although this problem is not yet totally resolved, I am now free of pain.

To further demonstrate that nothing is forfeited by serving church, I was called upon to conduct the church meeting at which I was elected reader. At the time, I was also serving in several other capacities, including vice-chairman of the board, lecture chairman, usher, maintenance, flowers, and Sunday School teacher, which seemed especially important to me as I was teaching a good-sized group of students who were attending regularly and moving forward very nicely. I was really counting on others to read, so I had taken my name off the eligibility list. However, no one would accept the position. We had to re-vote.

Since I was running the meeting, after a moment of prayer, I said I would put my name back up and invited others to do the same. No one did. I was elected. And guess what? All the other positions I had were beautifully filled when I took the First Reader’s spot. It seemed like a complete healing of the situation, and a great demonstration of the fact that God provides plenty of pillars; no one pillar bears the burden because church is not a burden, and serving church will always bless and protect.

Healed of a broken back

Here’s an account of a healing I had last summer. I had been showing some contractors around in the attic of our Sunday school. In my excitement to get their help with insulation, I lost my balance and ended up falling through the drop-ceiling.

Immediately I tried to get up, but couldn’t. One of the contractors quickly came down the ladder and asked if I was ok. I said I would be fine – I was in the military. He responded, “Yes, but you’re still human.” I appreciated his concern, but mainly wanted to be alone. The contractors left when my wife arrived on the scene. My wife asked how she could help. We were surrounded by hymnals, and although she hadn’t sung a hymn in many years, I knew I could ask for one now. It was wonderful to hear her sing!

I was able to crawl down the stairs and into the car. But the next day, I was still on my couch and realized I would not be going back to work soon. It was hard to sleep because of the pain in my back. I remember that it seemed ironic that the lesson that week was “Adam and Fallen Man.”

Since I’m a veteran, I decided to go to the VA hospital to see if any bones should be set. My dad and wife drove me to the hospital very carefully, but the trip was painful. The hospital had no X-ray or surgeon available, so they provided an ambulance that took me to a regional medical center. I was grateful for all the care the drivers took to make sure I was comfortable. After a long day of scans and waiting, the doctors said I had three fractures in my spine, but there was nothing they could do. They offered me pain treatments, but I refused because I was already relying on the might of that one Mind who rules out every pain.

A loving practitioner took up my case. When I didn’t know what else to affirm, she said, “Just obey.” That simple action, obeying God and his good thoughts, quieted worn-out assertions and revealed the truth that things were already good. Throughout this experience, my favorite new truth was, “Outside the material sense of things, all is harmony” (Science and Health, p. 489:28–29). This concept shifted my standpoint from reaching for a healing to letting the truth come out.

A pattern was emerging to me: If I should “banish the belief” that I “can possibly entertain a single intruding pain which cannot be ruled out by the might of Mind” (Science and Health, p. 391:9-12) and at the same time live “outside the material sense of things,” then the pain I thought I felt just wasn’t real – it was a belief that couldn’t change reality, and never had. Instead of Spirit being the point I was striving to reach, it was actually where I already was. 

The initial prediction from the ER doctor was that my recovery would take three to four months. But within a few days I was walking with a soft brace, and within a few weeks I was back at work at my remote desk at home. Thanks to God and Christian Science, by the end of the summer I was wrestling with my kids on a paddle-board. In the fall, I was able to build a patio that involved moving 375-pound rocks with a dolly.

I find it interesting that a student remembered Mrs. Eddy saying, “whenever anything happens to you of an unfortunate nature, do not admit anything on the wrong side, but instantly declare that the experience does you good. Even if you should fall down and break your leg, get up and say, ‘I am the better for this experience.’ This is the [t]ruth as God would declare it, for every attempt of evil, when surmounted and destroyed, helps the one who is attacked . . . ” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume 2, p. 424).

We are blessed to have been taught this Science of Life, which is freely given. I’m so grateful to be in this Association that doesn’t rest on personality, but on Principle – the Truth.

Practitioner’s statement Throughout my work on this case, my patient was expectant, unfearing, obedient. We both accepted the fact that unlimited power could be found in making God everything.  There was genuine evidence of steadiness of unfoldment, of obeying new views of perfect God and perfect man. His willingness to live, not on the level of a broken body, but in the allness of God, healed him.

Learning to communicate lovingly with those from differing backgrounds

I’m happy to be sending in this account of God’s work in His universal Church, of which all mankind is a member.

My young Sunday School students have been learning the usual Sunday School lessons specified in the Manual. My class has also been a laboratory for learning how to communicate solid, correct Christian Science, while expressing love, patience, and tolerance for those with diverging views.

Five or six years ago, a boy who was originally from Vietnam became a regular visitor to my Sunday School class. This boy and his family also attended a fundamentalist evangelical church. Because of their differing backgrounds, the students in my class would sometimes have disagreements concerning the truth about God.

At one point there were so many comments about the old theological concepts of sin and punishment that I decided to create a lesson to directly challenge those ideas. Although the lesson was presented with love, all that it accomplished was to make the student feel confused and sad. As a result, I decided never again to directly challenge false religious beliefs in that way. Instead, my job would be to present correct Christian Science, letting God leaven thought in His own way and in His own time. Mrs. Eddy instructs, “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of love” (Science and Health, p. 201:17–18). She does not say to pour in corrections through flood-tides of love! As I focused on pouring in truth, class conflicts about religious concepts lessened and then disappeared.

Another time, this student’s parents wrote a letter saying that they would no longer attend our church. It was simply too much driving for them to attend our church and then drive an hour to attend another church. Soon they stopped coming. After a while, however, the family returned. The boy and his brother said that they liked coming to our Sunday School and insisted on attending. Soon they resumed regular attendance and no longer attended the evangelical church. As the Bible tells us, “and a little child shall lead them” (Isa. 11:6).

I am happy to report that this boy is now an integral part of our church and has shared testimonies of healing in our Sunday School class and at the Thanksgiving service! An added bonus is that we have all been learning to communicate lovingly and tolerantly with those from differing backgrounds. Isn’t that the need of the hour in this world?

Further growth in church began six months ago, when another new family began attending our church. The family – a mother and two children – had recently arrived from Iran. The 10-year-old boy joined my 4th graders, and the teenage girl attended the high school class. The mother was very intent on learning about Christianity. In fact, besides leaving an oppressive government, the woman’s main motive for moving to the United States was to learn about Christianity. Since Christianity is outlawed in Iran, she had never attended a Christian church.

One day after Sunday School, the woman told me that she wanted to learn what her son was learning, and she wanted me to teach her. I was a bit shocked, but said I would be happy to help. Thus began a series of weekly Bible-Lesson study sessions, each of which lasted about 2 1/2 hour. On the first day, we could only get through the Responsive Reading and Section 1. She grappled with the English vocabulary and metaphysical concepts. The next week we finished the entire lesson. We have now worked together for six months, and she is literally soaking in the Christ! I have rarely seen anyone so hungry for the Truth. She and her family attend every Sunday and Wednesday, and she has already inquired about church membership.

During this time, we have marveled to see that all along she was being called to learn about the God of Love, not a false God of oppression. It was no accident that her new home is within easy walking distance of our church. Recently she was amazed to learn that our church publishes the Monitor, a newspaper she has read and appreciated for years because of its truthful and balanced reporting.

During the recent crackdown in immigration policy, my new friend became extremely fearful that she might be deported back to Iran. At certain times she would find herself crying uncontrollably and being unable to sleep. At one study session, she told me she was so upset that she couldn’t concentrate on the lesson we had been trying to read.

She had tried to pray about this, but felt she was getting nowhere. She asked me how to pray. I asked her what she had learned in Christian Science that caused her to love and trust God, or that made her feel safe. In other words, what spoke directly to her heart? She said she had learned that God would always love her and take care of her. He would never abandon her. I told her to write that down on a piece of paper, and just feel the power of the message. I would write down something that spoke to me in the same way. Then we would share the messages with each other. We did this a few more times, sharing as we went. Soon the fear lifted and she was free.

Afterward, she gave this testimony at our Wednesday service. My friend confided in me that she had been a doctor in Iran and brought with her a basket of pills to help her and her daughter sleep at night. But since coming to the United States and learning about Christian Science, they no longer needed them; they were sleeping peacefully. This was a revelation to her. She had already been questioning the practices of medical science, and now Christian Science was giving her answers. 

This lovely family has brought huge blessings to our church congregation, which has embraced them into our church family. All three members of the family are drinking in the message of the Bible and Science and Health. It is changing their lives. They are learning what it is to feel the joy and security of walking with God in His own kingdom of heaven, the heaven Jesus said was at hand!

Not guilty in the Supreme Court of Spirit

I’m especially grateful for the healing of a back injury that occurred earlier this year. One afternoon while going out to play tennis with my wife, I responded to a friend’s request to roll his ball toward him on an adjoining court. The ball was at my feet, and as I bent over to return it, I suddenly found myself in severe pain. Although I was able to walk and even hit some balls, getting beyond the claim of pain seemed difficult, despite my best efforts to work about it. I held fast to the scientific statement of being, silently declaring every truth I could, and we managed to get home without incident.

Over the next day or so, I constantly found myself facing the argument that an injury had occurred as the result of responding to a friend’s request for help. Mortal mind was determined to have me believe its lie.

Then all of a sudden it hit me: Divine Mind doesn’t know anything about this. Tremendous freedom came with that realization, and the claim of severe injury lifted. I knew I could rest assured of the truth of that statement, because it is a spiritual fact. It is undergirded by God’s law, so there is nothing that can change or contradict it. The carnal mind’s insistence that its view of the situation was the only legitimate one was of no importance so long as I didn’t give it any authority. I recalled a statement that a wonderful Christian Science practitioner shared with me many years ago: “You can have millions or billions of zeros lined up one after another – just remember that they’re meaningless as long as you don’t put a number in front of them.”

I’m also very grateful for the loving support of a Christian Science practitioner. Within a couple of days, I was completely free from the problem. The trial in Science and Health, where the prisoner is found not guilty in the Supreme Court of Spirit – the only court having jurisdiction to hear the case – was also a strong reminder of the basis for my freedom.

On another occasion last year, I was able to be at my post as Second Reader despite having had the symptoms of a heavy cold earlier in the week. Upon inquiring if a friend could possibly substitute for me that Sunday, she reminded me that freedom is normal and that we both have a healthy disbelief in matter. With that reminder, I continued to work with expectancy and joy, and I was able to go forward with the reading. The Word was unobstructed.

Seeing what is already true

Here is a wonderful healing from this past fall. As I was preparing for a very busy season with my business, my forehead started to hurt in a way that was very distracting. This claim dragged on for more than a week, and I called a practitioner to pray with me. The practitioner encouraged me to watch my thought by mentally saying, “Get thee hence, Satan,” anytime a claim of pain tried to distract me. I realized I needed to do that instead of probing my forehead for pain.

On Wednesday, a testimony at church helped to break the mesmerism of fear. The testifier mentioned a statement I didn’t remember ever reading in Science and Health: “Principle is not to be found in fragmentary ideas” (p. 302:1). The testifier also mentioned how an article called “Man Is a Unit” by Paul Stark Seeley connected to Mrs. Eddy’s statement (Sentinel, August 21, 1943). Then another person gave a testimony telling how she’d had a healing after reading that article. I felt very inspired and read the article the next morning.

That day I felt so much freer in my thought—the cloud of worry that had been hovering for more than a week disappeared. I felt joyful again as I worked on a project with a friend. I wasn’t tempted to touch my forehead at all that day. When I washed my face that night, I noticed it was still tender, but I knew that healing had already occurred in thought. I felt happy the next day, too, and the physical claim started to lift and then vanished over the next day or two.

I am very grateful for this healing! One additional aspect of this healing was that I learned that Christian Science is a science or knowledge of the way things are, not a healing approach that may or may not work. I am not making something true but rather seeing what is already true.

Awakened to the need to pray about everything

My stepdaughter was getting married the day after Thanksgiving, and I was busy with my seasonal business. On Wednesday when I got home from church, I discovered a note on my apartment door saying my upstairs neighbor had found a big box of merchandise addressed to me outside his door. I went upstairs and discovered that someone had opened the box and taken several thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise. Thanksgiving was the next day, and this was the last thing I wanted to deal with.

I was, frankly, very angry. Based on video footage from the lobby, my building’s super suspected that a man who had previously stolen packages from our building had also taken my merchandise, and I was feeling personally angry at him. (Rather than praying about the claim of package theft in my building, I had just assumed that my 50-lb boxes would be too heavy for anyone to walk off with.) I called the police to report the theft and was told to wait until the officers arrived.

At this point, I thought I should really pray! My thought was rather agitated, but I picked up a Sentinel and read an article called “Humility, not reaction” by Thomas Mitchinson (Sentinel, December 2, 2024), which helped calm my thought. I felt led to pray for the person who had taken my merchandise, to try to see him as God sees him and to know that he could hear God speaking to him.

One idea from Science and Health that I pray with every day is “All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (p. 514:28–30). I love to pray with this statement when I am driving, and I find it helpful in praying for the world to know that we are all moving “in the harmony of Science,” that we each are useful and cannot harm one another.

As I prayed about the theft, I realized I also needed to pray about the upcoming Thanksgiving gathering and the family wedding on Friday. At the wedding I would meet my husband’s ex-wife for the first time. I was nervous about meeting her, and there was also a claim of some family tensions. By the time I went to bed, I did feel a sense of peace. 

As we prepared to leave for Thanksgiving, I decided I was not going to mention the package situation at all. I just kept praying that we could only see, express, and experience Love. And it turned out to be an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving! There was no evidence of family tension, and I had lovely interactions with my husband’s ex-wife and all the very kind people I met. The wedding the next day was similarly harmonious and really joyful. We were so grateful for this love-filled time and for the expanded sense of family. Thank you, God.

In a nice little coda to this, my stepson encouraged me to file an insurance claim for the missing merchandise. I did and to my surprise, my claim was accepted. (I had thought my renter’s insurance would not cover a package for my business that was stolen from outside my door.) I did have to pay a deductible, but was very grateful to receive enough to cover quite a bit of the stolen merchandise. I think the most important part of this whole experience, though, was that it awakened me to the need to pray about everything!