Testimony of Healing October 21, 1996 Issue

For six years I did not get along with a particular woman at...

Joan Newkirk Bell with contributions from James Chapman Bell

For six years I did not get along with a particular woman at work. I wasn't sure why, but it seemed to be a personality conflict. Through the years I tried to tolerate her as best I could because she is the controller of the company, and I had to work with her.

I never prayed specifically about it, however, until around the beginning of last year. I was suffering with a cold, and it occurred to me that I was thinking cold thoughts about her. I did then begin to pray in earnest, and asked a practitioner for treatment, as well. I was reading an article in Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings titled "Taking Offense" (see pp. 223–224). At one point in my reading I exclaimed out loud: "This is it! This is exactly what I need to know." I didn't need to be offended at the things the controller was saying and doing that I knew were wrong. When I went to bed that evening I had a wonderful sense of freedom. When I wakened in the morning I was completely free of the cold.

But I didn't leave the matter there. I taped the passage I'd found helpful on a cassette tape and played it every day on my way to the office. I knew that this woman was as much God's child as I was—or anyone was—so she had to express good qualities.

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