Testimony of Healing April 6, 1974 Issue

I am grateful that my mother knew of Christian Science before...

Fraynie M. Gedney

I am grateful that my mother knew of Christian Science before her marriage through a healing of her sister. Although we were unable to attend Sunday School very often as children, her example in living her religion helped cement my interest. I had many healings during childhood including one of what appeared to be appendicitis.

But I feel the most gratitude for a healing of trench mouth when I was just out of high school. During World War II I was working at a naval station where there were several cases of trench mouth. I did not understand the importance of defending my thinking. I remember worrying about contracting the disease, and I did. As the symptoms became more pronounced, I became increasingly fearful until one evening, after my mother had called the Christian Science practitioner who was treating me, I was instantly changed from a fearful, depressed teen-ager to a relieved and joyous one. I felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from me. It was through no work of my own but through the practitioner's clear thought, as well as my mother's loving support, that I was healed. The physical symptoms disappeared in a few days. Throughout college life and early years of my marriage this healing steadied and directed me. Whenever I was in a questioning mood or discouraged I would realize that this healing could not have taken place unless the spiritual ideas Christian Science reveals were true and effective.

There have been many healings in my family of four children. After a skiing accident our daughter was healed of a swollen and painful knee and was skiing again the following weekend. The first evening as I was acknowledging her spiritual identity and denying the reality of an accident, I glanced at her and saw a most distressed girl. I had to refute the urge to go to her and tell her how sorry I was for her misfortune. I reasoned that if I believed in the declarations I was making of her selfhood as a spiritual idea—that she could not fall, be hurt, or touched in any way by a belief in an accident—I could not be sorry. How could I be sorry for someone whose dominion, strength, and freedom were complete?

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