One time after supper I was playing and stepped on a nail

One time after supper I was playing and stepped on a nail. I took the nail out and my foot was bleeding. Then I said I would never play again. (I was having a "notion.") But then I thought about being God's perfect child. Daddy said error shouldn't stop me from playing because it's a good and happy thing to do. So I played again. While I was playing I thought about Jesus and I thought good thoughts. The next day I was better.

JOHN CHARLES BURGETT
Ballwin, Missouri

I am Johnny's mother, and I was present when he stepped on the nail. After the foot had been cleaned and cared for and he'd calmed down, Johnny was ready to play. But he worried that praying and playing might interfere with one another. My husband and I assured him that he could pray while he was playing. He thought he would try it. After he'd returned to his playing I recalled these verses from the ninety-first Psalm (vv. 11, 12): "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." And part of Mrs. Eddy's definition of "angels" in Science and Health (p. 581) reads: "God's thoughts passing to man ..." I reasoned that despite appearances, God's angels had always protected Johnny from harm, and that he could suffer no effects from something that had, in reality, never really happened. By the next day he was walking and running freely. This was an important healing for Johnny, because it was the first one in which he had participated in the praying. I am very grateful for this Science and for a growing sense of maturity and peace that I am finding through my study of it.

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August 30, 1982
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