The Touch of Class October 8, 2012 Issue

In this series, individuals share how taking Christian Science Primary class instruction has strengthened their spiritual understanding, and brought increasing inspiration and healing to their lives.

'Never really over!'

James Shepherd—Eugene, Oregon

“Class instruction was the best two weeks of my life!” exclaimed a former Sunday School teacher and mentor of mine. She was excited about my recent completion of Primary class instruction. Those two weeks certainly were awesome, so I understood her sentiment. And yet, while she meant the remark in a positive way, at the time it struck me as kind of a downer. What? You mean the best two weeks of my life are over?

In that moment I made a little pact with myself that those two weeks wouldn’t be the highlight of my lifelong study and practice of Christian Science. And through the years I’ve found that, as I continue to build upon what I learned in those two weeks of class, every year is better and more inspiring than the previous one.

What I’ve come to love most about class instruction over the years is the simple fact that it’s never really over! Those weeks in the classroom were not a one-and-only opportunity for instruction. Each year I’ve returned to my annual association meeting, which includes additional instruction from our Christian Science teacher. He occasionally reminds his students that this meeting is not a “refresher” course, but is, in fact, an additional day of class instruction. To me, then, the point of these association meetings isn’t to get my understanding of Christian Science back to where it was at the end of the two-week course. Or back to where it was at the end of last year. Rather, each association meeting gives me fresh insights into how to better apply this Science and prepares me for further growth in the upcoming year. 