Testimony of Healing January 4, 1975 Issue

I am very grateful to Christian Science for the spiritual growth...

Constance B. Wallingford

I am very grateful to Christian Science for the spiritual growth I have gained over the past few years. After I graduated from college, I began to teach fifth grade. I found that there were many challenges, and I was able to meet most of these through prayer in Science. However, it seemed I could never really handle the problem of discipline. The group of students last year was particularly unruly, distressing all the teachers that worked with them.

After several weeks I began to think more metaphysically about discipline. Each morning I began by establishing in my own thought what man really is. I knew that man, in his real being, can only be good; he can express only Godlike qualities. These qualities of man are inherent in each of God's children, including myself and each of my students. I saw qualities of intelligence, restraint, compassion, joy, sharing, and attraction to God that I saw in myself, then I wasn't living up to Christ Jesus' command (Matt. 22:39): "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." I also recognized that my everyday living could only be a result of my thought, and that the change necessary was not "out there" but rather in my own understanding of reality.

As I looked through the lens of Spirit to see the spiritual reflections of God, rather than looking through the material lens and seeing discordant images of mortal mind, the scene naturally improved. The principal and other teachers commented on how differently many of the children were acting. I was even asked by the principal to record the procedures I had used to bring about the change in the behavior of the students. This was no easy task, since I realized the change had been in my thinking rather than in my procedures.

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