About twenty-six years ago I found my homelife disrupted...

About twenty-six years ago I found my homelife disrupted, and I was in a state of confusion and unrest. For about the first five years of my married life I had been more or less contented. Then one day I awakened to the fact that I was no longer satisfied with what seemed to me our worldly way of life. My husband had a drinking problem which caused much distress and lack in the home. I tried to live with it for the sake of a young son I had by a former marriage, whose father had passed on suddenly a few years before. But there came a time when a separation and then a divorce seemed the only solution open to me. I had been in business for myself prior to this marriage but had given it up, thinking I would be a better wife and mother. After selling our home, and taking my share of the proceeds, I came back to my native state to find peace and quietness on an old run-down farm. Here I felt I could think and find peace of mind.

In a few weeks I was divinely led to visit a Christian Science Reading Room in a nearby city. I was attracted to the passages marked in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, displayed there. That was the beginning of a spiritual awakening for me.

When I entered the Reading Room, I related to the librarian my doleful story of unhappiness and despair. To my surprise she did not seem a bit impressed by what I thought was a dire circumstance. She listened till I had finished my story. Then she lovingly said to me that the children of Israel were forty years going through the wilderness. At the time I could not see how their experience had any bearing on my unpleasant situation. But I have since come to understand that just as they were guided out of their wilderness experience so was I. Those few words have remained with me over the years to encourage and bless me in trying conditions. After this interview I was soon to understand that my trouble had arisen from dependence upon the corporeal man as my husband and guide and source of my happiness, instead of on the spiritual idea of man led by God. That very evening I suddenly felt a great flood of light all around me, displacing the dark clouds of fear and despair, and a warmth I had not known for some time.

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January 5, 1974
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