When our son was about one year old, he was instantly healed, through prayer, of pain from a bee sting. We were almost home when he started to scream and cry, which was very unusual for him. As soon as I parked in our garage I held him and tried to find out what the trouble was. There was a bee on the back of his head, which I quickly brushed off. But there was still something dark on his head, which turned out to be the stinger. I immediately started to pray out loud. A sentence from Science and Health came to me: "All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible" (p. 514). By the time I took my son into my bathroom to get a pair of tweezers, he had stopped crying. The stinger came out easily, and I cleaned the small scratch. He was perfectly fine as I put him into his crib for a nap.

I felt that I needed to continue praying, however, to eliminate my own fear that there might be aftereffects. (When I was in elementary school I had been stung by a bee, and there had been swelling and discomfort.) As I read that week's Lesson-Sermon, found in the Christian Science Quarterly, it became very clear to me that just because certain conditions are present, there doesn't have to be the effect that human belief expects. Spiritual understanding replaces material beliefs with a recognition of the ever-present harmony of God's creation. I stopped expecting swelling, and there never was any.

When the pediatrician examined our daughter shortly after birth, she said that the baby's right hip felt dislocated. She recommended that further tests be done the next week, then said she would be back in the morning for a final check. That night a Christian Science practitioner, my husband, and I all prayed about the situation. I prayed to know that man is never "dislocated"—never in the wrong place—because he abides in divine Mind as Mind's idea. Also, Mrs. Eddy describes man as "the compound idea of infinite Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 591), and I knew that Principle, God, establishes order, so no aspect of that compound idea could be out of position. The pediatrician had also said that that type of hip condition is common among girls, and the practitioner's treatment specifically countered that belief with the spiritual truth of being.

The next morning the pediatrician returned to check the baby. I continued to pray that the perfection of man be seen now and always. She could not find anything wrong with the child's hip, though she advised us to take our daughter to a pediatrician if we noticed any problem when she started walking. Our daughter began walking at an early age and has never had any trouble with her hip. We all rejoiced at this proof of God's healing power.

Through our daily prayers and our refusal to see anything but God's perfect child, our son was healed of a mark on his cheek and of a puffy eyelid, and our daughter was healed of the effects of a burn on her cheek that had come from contact with a curling iron.

The power of the truth was made especially evident to me one Wednesday evening. I had started getting a headache in the afternoon, but was able to usher that evening at church. After church I felt nauseated and wasn't sure I could drive home without having to pull the car over and get out. On the way home I prayed fervently. I continually repeated two or three simple truths, such as "God is my Life and is good, so my life is good." Then it occurred to me that the purpose of my prayer (and therefore its result) was not to get home quickly but rather to prove the power of God to heal the illness. Within a few seconds the nausea left me. Once home, I was able to put the children to bed and ready myself for bed as usual. By that time I was completely well.

I am so very grateful for all of the blessings that knowing God through Christian Science has brought into my life.

Suzanne B. Soulé
Vista, California

I am Suzanne Soulé's mother-in-law. I have known her for a number of years and have become very impressed with her spiritual maturity and steadfast confidence in God's care for her and her family. I have personally witnessed some of the healings Suzanne relates in her testimony. Others were handled so immediately that I did not learn of them until their completion.

The burn on my granddaughter's cheek occurred while I was caring for her. The physical evidence was very alarming, and I requested Christian Science treatment from a practitioner. As I finished talking with the practitioner, the child's tears stopped and she never again showed any discomfort from the burn. In my prayers for her, and in trying to quell my deep sense of guilt and self-condemnation, I realized that, in reality, nothing could penetrate or mar the perfection and beauty of Soul, of which she was the complete expression. I found great strength in Mrs. Eddy's reply to the question "Is anything real of which the physical senses are cognizant?" (Unity of Good, p. 8). In the following days, whenever my husband and I saw or thought of the child, we acknowledged only her perfect, unmarred, eternal existence as the child of God. The healing was complete in a very short time, and her face is as pure and clear now as it had been before the incident.

I am happy to verify Suzanne's testimony and am grateful for these many demonstrations of God's love and that she and our son are faithfully teaching their children to rely upon His ever-present, constant care.

Barbara C. Soulé