A story about liverwurst, dog pills, and fear--with a happy ending!

About a week ago, I felt a claim of a cold coming on, and I sort of prayed but also remember thinking, well, I just need sleep. And the thought kept coming, I should really immerse my thought in Spirit, but instead I found myself immersing myself in public radio and the New York Times. I seemed sort of better, but then the claim seemed to get stronger by the end of the week, and I ended up unable to do much on Saturday but lie around. I called a practitioner for Christian Science treatment. I found myself telling her that I just felt very far from God, that God felt like an abstract notion that I was having trouble praising and loving with my whole heart. And she asked me if I could feel and know and love good, which I could, and then said that God is goodness. This was a turning point for me.

I felt much better Sunday morning, in particular during the Sunday church service, which I felt so grateful for. After church, another Association member and I shared ways in which we were praying about the North Korea situation.

Although I felt much better, I continued working with the practitioner because the previous evening, our dog had started going to the bathroom randomly inside the house, including in her bed, which was very unlike her. She had a vet's appointment for her annual shots (which are required for boarding, grooming, etc.) on Monday, and I had already mentioned this to the practitioner initially because the previous year the vet had made age-based predictions for our dog and I wanted to defend her against this matter-based thought.

My husband learned about Christian Science when he met me and is not a member of The Mother Church or a branch church, but he is a student of Christian Science who attends church with me and studies the weekly Bible Lesson. (He was healed of years of smoking by reading Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy.)  He asked me to tell the vet about the bed-wetting. The vet was very kind, and our dog passed all the exams with flying colors (and even showed no evidence of Lyme disease this year––last year she had, and I have been praying about that since her last exam, knowing from the textbook (p. 463), "A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive”).  But she did make a diagnosis of a urinary tract infection (and took a sample to confirm this with a lab and said she would call that night) and sent me off with 25 pills to give our dog over the next two weeks.

My husband said we could talk about this that night, and meanwhile I continued to work with the practitioner.  I was so grateful to already be healed of the claim of distance from God and distraction––I felt very close to God and just drank up the wonderful Lesson about Soul.  I am also working my way through rereading my class notes each morning and had just arrived at the section on "Soul" that morning, too.  I had "May 5, 1980, Sentinel" written down, so I looked at JSH-Online to read a testimony you recommended in which knowing God as Soul, healed the writer of the claim of cancer.  Since I didn't know the title, I just guessed, but the first testimony I read was instead about a woman healed of adult bed-wetting––it was so helpful!  She worked with this statement from Science and Health: "God controls man, and God is the only Spirit" (SH 73:10-11), and she daily acknowledged "God's omnipotent government over His creation, which is spiritual." The testimony from my class notes I was looking for was also incredibly helpful, especially in regards to not yielding to discouragement.

The practitioner and I were both working with the line from Hymn #221 that says "Thy kingdom, God, within us/Shows forth Love's sweet control. God's idea, man, rejoices; He knows the reign of Soul" and also "the king's daughter is all glorious within" (Ps 45:13).  I thought a lot about the part from Science and Health (412:28-31) where Mrs. Eddy writes that in the case of a young child, the parent's thought should be treated, so I knew I had to get rid of any fear I might feel. I felt so close to God as I read this week's Lesson––it all seemed to be speaking directly to this situation.  I saw our dog is "pure and holy" (SH 477:5), now. "The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table" (Matt 15:27) had new meaning for me this week, as I thought about her "eating" my crumbs of spiritual thought about her present perfection!  There is so much in this Lesson about the dominion of Soul, which has also been so helpful in praying about the claim of different, feuding powers in the world. There is only one government, God's government, and we are all living in the kingdom of Soul. There is no power but of God, our (everyone's!) Father-Mother, who is all-harmonious. When I read "Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right" (SH 236:28-29), I knew that this applied to animals as well. The following statements were also particularly helpful (both for my dog and in praying about domestic and international governance):

•    "…Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal." (SH, p. 476)

•    Knowing that the "real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called laws of matter." (SH, p. 302)

•    Recognizing "only the divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place." (SH, p. 9)

•    "Man is harmonious when governed by Soul." (SH, p. 273)

The practitioner also reminded me to be joyful, which was reinforced by this passage at the end of the Lesson: "my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in his salvation" (Ps 35:9). And I love knowing that we all are dwelling in the "KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The reign of harmony in divine Science." (SH 590:1)

I really felt like the healing had already occurred and felt calm and grateful. That evening, however, the vet called to say that the lab results were back and that our dog had a urinary tract infection and that if we hadn't given her any already, we should definitely start giving her the pills. Because our dog seemed to be showing such improvement, my husband agreed to wait on this. But later that night, we received a panicked call from my husband's grown daughter, who had been listed as a contact at the vet and received a voicemail message about the diagnosis, and she made my husband promise to give our dog the pills. I found myself getting quite flustered.  I texted the practitioner to mention this, and she reminded me to have "pitiful patience with [their] fears" (SH, p. 367) and to know that they would be able to see the effectiveness of the medicine that is Mind. This helped me be calmer. I also read "What You Think Counts" by Milton Simon (Journal, June 1967), which addressed my fear of others' thoughts influencing treatment and healing.

We are going away this coming weekend (and staying at a dog-friendly motel), so my husband asked me to give our dog the pills if she had any problems in the morning. As I left to go to a meeting, I saw that she had gone to the bathroom inside again and was dismayed. I continued to work with the practitioner, who patiently reminded me that we are not working to change matter, but seeing what is already true about this sweet dog. I saw my husband after the meeting, and he was very kind (I was feeling a bit down about this seeming reversal) and said he would give our dog the pills when he got home.

When I came back, there was more evidence of the claim waiting for me in our apartment, and I got quite discouraged. I felt so sure that the healing had taken place, and I wanted so much for my husband and stepchildren to see the effectiveness of Christian Science (and I'd even started writing this testimony!), and I felt so shaken and confused by the evidence matter was presenting. But I was helped by rereading testimonies of healing from the 1943 Sentinels and also testimonies of my own healings I have written down in a notebook, many of which have involved knowing that matter-based "evidence" is a lie, that it really does not matter what matter is saying. Nevertheless, before my husband came home, I called the practitioner in tears. She again lovingly reminded me that this claim has never been true, ever, about our dog and that we are not praying to change matter but to see the present spiritual perfection–-the reality!––of our dog. Meanwhile, mortal mind seemed to be having a field day, as our dog was quite literally going to the bathroom in circles around me every 5 to 10 minutes as I sat on the grass talking to the practitioner. (Sometimes mortal mind gets so over-the-top that it becomes easier to see it for what it is––a lie!)

I told the practitioner that my husband wanted our dog to take the pills but asked her if she would continue to pray for me, which she agreed to do. Meanwhile, our dog did not want to take the pills at all! My husband spent about 30 minutes in vain, then asked me to help, then went out to buy liverwurst and special pill-concealing dog treats, and spent about another hour getting her to take 1.5 pills. I continued to know that the healing was complete and that she was God's perfect creation. Before we went to bed, he mentioned to me that his family's previous dog had had some urinary issues before she passed on, and that he thought this was why his daughter was so fearful.

This seemed like something the practitioner should know about, so I shared it with her the next morning. I also read more testimonies from 1943 and the latest Sentinel (it is so helpful to read accounts of others' healings when world belief is trying to make you think Christian Science isn't effective!) and the Lesson and really tried to soak in all that truth about the reign of Soul. When my husband reported that our dog had an accident in the hallway outside our building, I knew that there are "no accidents in God's kingdom" (a new application for this thought!). I just stuck with the truth about God's perfect, spiritual creation and read "Accepting the True Report" (Milton Simon, Journal, September 1946) and "The Human and Divine Coincidence" (Blanche Hersey Hogue, Journal, January 1945), and felt uplifted. That morning I put the rugs back in place and felt that no matter what the mortal evidence claimed, our dog was perfect, spiritual, and whole. But there was no evidence that day of any disorder! After we returned from a really wonderful, inspiring Wednesday meeting at church, our dog went to the bathroom normally outside. But my husband still wanted to continue with the pills. Our dog, however, wanted no part of this! She carefully nibbled the liverwurst until she reached the pill and then flung the rest of the liverwurst onto the floor. Same for the pill-concealing treats. In a last-ditch effort, my husband tried to stuff the pill in her throat, but she spat it out. He said he was going to call the vet the next day to see what he should do, and I pointed out that she had had a day of total freedom from this claim.

And this morning and all day today, she has gone to the bathroom outside normally. I am SO grateful and joyful and thankful to God! One of the best things about his healing is that I feel like I understand what it means to truly praise God and love God with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind. I'm so grateful for Christian Science––for Christ Jesus for showing us how to love God and love (and heal!) our neighbor, for Mrs. Eddy for explaining how Jesus did this and how we can, too (and for her provision of class instruction and the periodicals), for Christian Science practitioners, for having been able to take class instruction, and for this wonderful Association!