Testimony of Healing March 9, 1981 Issue

Two years ago a mole on my neck began to enlarge

CAROLYN PEDERSON

Two years ago a mole on my neck began to enlarge. It grew rapidly and soon was so noticeable that I wore high necklines to hide it. I knew that people sometimes have moles removed surgically, and taking such a route occurred to me. As soon as the suggestion came, though, I rejected it because this little bit of matter wasn't the real issue. I turned to the truths of my spiritual selfhood and asked a Christian Science practitioner to help me better understand this selfhood. She encouraged me to look up references on growth in the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. One statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was especially meaningful (p. 368): "Neither evil, disease, nor death can be spiritual, and the material belief in them disappears in the ratio of one's spiritual growth."

As the mother of four young children, I had felt that I was doing well if I managed to get the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly read each day. I had concluded that deeper study would have to wait until the children were older and I had more free time. Now this was recognized as a holding pattern that was delaying my progress in spiritual understanding. And suddenly it was obvious that reading was only part of real in-depth study. I also needed to apply more consistently the spiritual truths I already knew.

I thought of Christ Jesus' parable of the servants who received talents, or money, from their master. The servants who used their money wisely and doubled their earnings gained the most in the end. The servant who buried his portion lost even what had been given to him. (See Matt. 25:14-30.) I couldn't just bury what I had learned until a more convenient time or I might lose that knowledge. Rather, I must practice the spiritual truths now in order to keep and increase my understanding.

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