Testimony of Healing October 16, 1995 Issue

As president of the Parent-Teacher Association of our local...

Janet Wilkerson

As president of the Parent-Teacher Association of our local grade school in the 1991–92 year, I worked closely with a new principal. He had difficulty understanding the culture of the school. Many people, both staff members and parents, began trying to oust this individual. I felt my job was to uphold the office of principal and to support the community, while trying to maintain morale in a steadily worsening situation.

Within months it became evident that this individual should not be in a position of leadership, and I then found myself making a mental list of his breaches of integrity and civility. Eventually our school was subjected to nationwide attention. I knew there would be court cases coming up, and I recorded and documented every instance of misdoing that I knew about, for the trials. Soon I found myself ruminating over the offenses daily—instead of praying about the situation to heal my own concept of it, I made evil very personal and real.

At one point, a dark spot appeared on the white of one of my eyes. Eventually there were many severe shocks in the eye, and I lost vision and motor control in it. Because my other eye became overly sensitive to light, I was hardly able to see, even with dark sunglasses. I knew exactly what the problem was, and it wasn't a disease in my eye. I felt that a sinful view of man was keeping me from seeing that man is always God's beloved idea. It was very hard to keep myself from going over lists of various improprieties I'd witnessed, but I also knew I must. I sat in darkness for nearly two months praying about this, during which time I was often unable to sleep. The biggest challenge for me was to stop my wandering thought from rehearsing the evidence of man as sinful.

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