When I was a young child, I was sexually abused a number...

When I was a young child, I was sexually abused a number of times by my father. When I told my mother about it she, of course, was devastated. But after much crying, she talked with me and told me that she felt we needed to stay with my father to give him opportunity to correct the wrong. I was then around ten years of age, and I loved both my parents. I talked with them and made my dad swear he would never touch me again. Nevertheless, I continued living with the dreadful knowledge I kept hidden from the world. Alcohol and violence marked the rest of my dad's life, and my mom seemed to be the victim.

There were many years of mental and emotional suffering before I found Christian Science. Then I learned the spiritual fact that abuse and suffering can be healed through divine Love. Because of this, I came to understand that my real, spiritual nature had never been degraded.

This understanding, or spiritual rebirth, did not come all at once. As I read in Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy: "The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love."

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April 2, 1990
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