Twenty-five years ago I was suddenly confronted with the. . .

Twenty-five years ago I was suddenly confronted with the necessity of overcoming the problem of excess weight. Although the condition had prevailed during my childhood and on into young adulthood, I had never challenged the false assumption that in my case the condition was hereditary. The rude awakening came when a physical examination in connection with an annuity disclosed that I was within ten pounds of being refused the annuity! This really woke me up, and I remembered that my teacher in Christian Science had told us in class: "Don't be limited by other people's achievements." I saw that I did not have to accept this belief concerning obesity just because members of my family and other people did. I determined then and there to vigorously oppose this imposition of false belief. And armed with my Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and other writings of Mrs. Eddy's, as well as the Concordances and a good dictionary, I set earnestly to work as we are taught to do in Christian Science.

When a dictionary definition showed me that obesity is a "disease," I promptly concluded that I most certainly would not permit any other so-called "disease" to hang around year after year as this one had appeared to do. Among the very many helpful statements from the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, I found the following from the textbook to be especially pertinent: "You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs included in matter" (Science and Health, p. 208). From the very beginning of my prayerful study and effort to overcome this long-standing problem, I gradually lost weight until I had put off forty-five pounds. I went from a size twenty dress to a ten and then leveled off at size twelve, which is my size today and appears to be quite normal for my height of five feet two.

In 1947, when this healing took place, people were not as "diet-conscious" as they are today, and I was not considered to be a big eater. I made no change in my eating habits but continued to partake of whatever foods were served at our regular meals, mindful, of course, that one normally feeds hunger, not false appetite. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 167), "Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized." I gained my dominion through absolute reliance on Christian Science.

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Testimony of Healing
One evening I had a feeling I couldn't bend my knee, and it...
May 5, 1973
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