Testimony of Healing September 3, 1979 Issue

At one time I was looking for a teaching position in an area...

CLAIRE LYLE PURDY HESS

At one time I was looking for a teaching position in an area where jobs for educators were scarce. I asked a friend to help me through prayer in Christian Science. She pointed out that I needed to specifically challenge every limiting suggestion that came to thought on the subjects of work, employment, and supply. I recall two important changes in my attitude having to do with age and skills. As I studied and prayed scientifically, it became clearer to me that in God's eternal universe, the real man has ageless life and unending usefulness. Human restrictions such as being too young, nearing retirement, or being middle-aged don't apply to the spiritual man. In the perfection of God's creation, each idea serves a unique and necessary purpose eternally.

The first day of school came and went, and I still had no job. But I wasn't disturbed. I affirmed my identity as indispensable to God's plan. Then, one morning while studying and praying, I received a call from a private school that was starting its academic year the next day. They needed the skills I could offer, and the resulting job was very rewarding and lasted as long as I lived in that town.

While prayerfully preparing for an office in my branch church, I was troubled with a stiff neck for about a week. The day before my work was to begin, other discomforts suddenly aggravated the problem. As soon as was possible, without telling anyone of my difficulties, I retired to my room. In pain and distress, I cried out to God. A simple phrase, "Man is innocent," came clearly to my thought. This statement was significant to me, for I had always struggled with excessive guilt feelings for every mistake or omission, no matter how trivial. Now, I saw and understood something of the sinless nature of the real man, created in God's likeness. As Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 475), "The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin." I was healed immediately.

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