Testimony of Healing September 16, 1972 Issue

A few years ago, when our family was in need of a home, I became...

Elizabeth W. Oestreich with contributions from Newell H. Oestreich

A few years ago, when our family was in need of a home, I became very discouraged, fearful over a lack of funds to purchase a house, and even bitter because I thought I would never be able to raise my children in the same atmosphere as I had been raised. Being a country girl at heart, I longed for trees and flowers and open spaces. We were living in a very large metropolitan city.

One day these words from Matthew kept coming to my thought (6:8): "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." But then after that would come the argument, "If He knows our needs, why doesn't He meet them?" That night I called a Christian Science practitioner and told her of the despair I was feeling.

What stood out to me most vividly from that conversation was that everything I looked upon should be loved and cared for, no matter what my environment seemed to be. Even if I lived in a wooden hut next to a train track, I could express art and beauty and order because I could love. And, to me, the beauty was in loving. And it wasn't a matter of just being a better housekeeper; it was a matter of caring. I began mentally to put our home back into Spirit, to see home as qualities derived from God, such as affection, compassion, peace, temperance, order, gentleness, stability, joy, and strength. I didn't have to look in the want ads for these. I began to accept the home that God had already given us. I began to see God's qualities everywhere. I was becoming rich in Spirit.

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