As long as I can remember I have kept a daily journal in which I write down my inspirational thoughts and ideas. Not long ago I was flipping through it and I ran across a healing that my daughter had several years ago. The healing had been so quick and complete that the words in my journal were only a few lines long—with a big star burst drawn in the margin reading, “Healed.”

My young daughter had developed a stye in one of her eyes (a painful bump on one eyelid). Her eye became swollen, and she was sent home from school. I immediately began to pray for her.

Later that day she was scheduled to go over to her dad’s house. Her dad is not a Christian Scientist, so when he came to pick her up, we discussed the situation. Our agreement in raising our children was that any time he became fearful in a situation, he had the right to seek medical attention for the child. In this case he took our daughter to the doctor, and she was sent home with special eye drops—and the prognosis that once a child gets a stye, he or she is prone to get them often.

My daughter used the drops for several weeks, but the stye remained. The doctor was called, and he told our daughter that the stye would eventually go away as long as she kept using the drops. At this point I told her dad that I would like to discontinue using the drops and call a Christian Science practitioner to pray for our daughter instead. He was frustrated with the inefficacy of the eye drops and agreed to the request.

I don’t remember exactly what the practitioner said to me when I called, but I remember praying with this statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive” (p. 463). 

I knew without a doubt that this child was an idea of God, and as I prayed, it became clear that you couldn’t attach a mortal element to a spiritual idea. As my daughter and I prayed together along these lines, supported by the practitioner, the stye cleared up completely within a few days. I was very grateful for this healing, as was she and her dad.

A few months later, my daughter woke up one morning with another stye in her eye. My first thought was, “Not again.” Then, my second thought was absolutely, “Not again!” I recognized we didn’t need to go down that road again, since this had been beautifully healed before. I called the same practitioner and told her the situation. She was very adamant that nothing could attach itself to an idea of God. I hung up the phone and felt a sense of peace and joy in knowing the truth about my daughter.

Since styes aren’t considered contagious, I felt comfortable letting my daughter go to school. At the end of the school day I picked her up. Her eyes were clear and beautiful. The healing was so quick that I never even needed to mention it to her dad. This is when I drew the big star burst in my journal that said “Healed.” This healing took place three years ago and has been so complete that I had almost forgotten about it in the meantime.

I am so grateful for this healing and for so many more healings that my family has experienced over many years.

Dana Castle
Atlanta, Georgia, US

My mother never gave up; she always prayed and looked for the Truth. She helped me realize that God wasn’t going to let me suffer with such a thing. God doesn’t have a stye, so why should I? Soon after we started praying, it was gone! My mom’s prayer and God’s work showed me to always look toward the Truth and never give in to error.

Madison Castle
Age 13