It is natural for parents to want the best available care for their...

It is natural for parents to want the best available care for their children. In our family that has meant turning to God for help in meeting all the needs of our children as they have grown. My husband and I prayed daily, acknowledging health as a God-given quality that each of our boys possesses by reflection as the image and likeness of God. This resulted in very healthy childhoods for them and very few days missed from school. I think what meant the most to me as a parent was the dependability and the immediacy of God's help when it was needed. God is always, as the Psalmist assures us, "a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46:1).

One night our two-year-old woke screaming and clutching his ear. Wanting to ease his suffering immediately, I called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment through prayer, even though it was in the wee hours of the morning. The practitioner reminded me that nothing could hinder or obstruct the activity of divine Mind. We affirmed that this child's innocence was God-bestowed and God-maintained. This innocence was a protection to him. The practitioner referred me to this passage in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "Divide the name Adam into two syllables, and it reads, a dam, or obstruction.... Here a dam is not a mere play upon words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the supposed separation of man from God, and the obstacle which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and his creator" (p. 338). Affirming God as the only source of this child's being, we knew we could then deny any power that would claim to separate him from God, including an ear infection. As soon as I hung up the telephone, the child ceased to squirm and cry. I stayed beside him, continuing to pray, and within fifteen minutes his ear had drained. He slept through the night and never again had an ear infection.

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February 17, 1997
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