TeenConnect: Trending January 15, 2024 Issue

Overcoming academic challenges

Oliver Simpson

Originally appeared online in the teen series Trending - October 24, 2023

AARON CRANFORD — STAFF

As a high school student—secondary school student in the United Kingdom—academics were really challenging. Exams were particularly difficult, since reading and writing didn’t come naturally to me. I regularly needed extra time to complete exams because it was hard for me to remember answers and write cohesive essays. To address this, my school suggested that my academics should be evaluated by a learning specialist, who diagnosed me with dyspraxia.

I was brought up attending Christian Science Sunday School and had learned that prayer had helped so many people overcome all kinds of challenges. So why not me, too? I knew that my parents were praying about my struggles in school, and I also decided to pray about them.

One thing I’d learned in Sunday School is that I am God’s reflection. I’d also learned that Mind is a name for God, and that means intelligence is divine, not human. So, since I reflect all that God is, my intelligence doesn’t come from a brain but from God and is infinite, immediate, and unobstructed. With this spiritual fact in mind, it made sense that ideas must come naturally and at the right speed to God’s creation—me.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Freedom from the flu