YOUR HEALTH
HEALTHY LIVING IS SPIRITUAL LIVING
3 Teens tell about their spiritual healings
»Amy Ideas that ended an eating problem
Two summers ago I went on a back-packing trip with my dad in California. It was really awesome. We hiked for eight days from Mammoth Lakes to Yosemite. When I returned home from the trip, I found that I had lost a considerable amount of weight from all the exercise. I'm a small person, and I didn't weigh very much to begin with. But I was happy about the weight loss, because I thought it meant I was physically fit and could do better in sports. I also thought I looked better.
When I started 10th grade a month later in September, everyone noticed the difference in how I looked. As the year went on, however, I became unhappy. I didn't think the school I was in was right for me. Although I did well academically, I didn't like hanging out with my friends. I thought they were superficial and full of gossip. I would often come home and cry to my mom about it.
This unhappiness really took a toll on my body. I began to eat very little and lose even more weight. I thought that being thin would make me happy, and then school would get better. But it wasn't the solution.
At the same time I stopped having my period. That scared me, but I didn't do anything about it. I thought my period would eventually come back, but I didn't have one for over a year. By then I had started 11th grade. I was still unhappy in school, and my eating habits continued to go downhill.
Last year, in my first semester of 11th grade, I finally decided to get help. I e-mailed my Sunday School teacher to tell him about the problem, and he started praying for me right away. He asked me to look up what Science and Health says about beauty. One thing says, “The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious freedom of spiritual harmony.” (pp. 247-8 )
Since I love to exercise and be active, he asked me to describe my motives for exercising. Were they, “I want to lose weight and stay thin,” or were they less self-centered? I realized that I had been focused on my weight and appearance over the past two years, rather than on God and on worshipping Him. I was so caught up in the idea that I was unhappy at school, that I didn't have time to think about anything else.
I had become stuck on the idea that I could become happy by changing schools. My Sunday School teacher said that happiness was not based on where you go, but how you go. He read me the words from one of my favorite hymns, “ ‘Feed My Sheep’ ” by Mrs. Eddy. The hymn starts out: “Shepherd show me how to go” (Hymnal, No. 304 ). We discussed the ideas behind the words — that it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you remember to live the way God shows you. In other words, how you go about living your life is more important than where you live.
And I realized that how I was living my life wasn't all that good. So I decided to start looking at my friends through more spiritual eyes — to see the good things about them, and be a positive influence. Instead of being disgusted by their talking behind each others backs, I would change the subject if needed. Slowly, the conversations with them became based on completely different things.
“Happiness is not based on where you go but how you go”
With this new outlook, life became happier. Last January, I began having fun in school and eating normally. A couple of months later, my period started again. It was the most freeing thing I have ever experienced. I realized that I had had a wonderful healing. It wasn't quick, but it did come. Being faithful to God and understanding His Love for me is what healed me. It healed the unhappiness, as well as the eating problem. It also helped me to see that my happiness was not based on where I went to school.
Through this beautiful healing, I was finally able to understand the power of prayer.
Amy Aleshire
Irvine, California
» Tine My beauty wasn't scarred
One afternoon last year, my cousin Monica and I went roller-skating around the block near my house. We came to a huge hill that looked very challenging and creepy. Monica asked, “Tine, are you sure you want to go down that hill?” I said, “Yes.” So she said, “OK, go ahead.”
As I started down, my speed increased too quickly. I was literally flying, and I felt I was going to fall. I tried to brake with the skates, but nothing happened. I couldn't stop! The next moment I collided with a parked car. The side of my face slammed into the car, then I fell and scraped my face on the gravel road. “Ouch!”
“I was flying — I couldn't stop!”
A neighbor who saw what had happened came and helped me. She drove me to my house. By now I was afraid and in pain, and I started to cry. When I got home my mom and dad tried to comfort me and calm me down. They cleaned and removed the gravel from my face. Then they asked me if I wanted to go and get it checked out by a doctor. I said, “No, all I need is God.”
I prayed that night, and the next day I didn't go to school. Instead, I called my grandmother, Nana, who is a Christian Science healer. I told her I was scared that my face was never going to be the same. She said, “No, it will be all right. Let's pray about your true beauty as a child of God.”
Nana gave me this passage to read from the Bible: “Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty” (Job 40: 10 ). I thought about how God made us all beautiful. What He gives us is permanent and beautiful, so an accident couldn't ruin it. This idea helped me to stop thinking about the ugly picture of myself I saw in the mirror. Later, when people at the hairdressers’ said they thought my face would scar, I wasn't as afraid.
About a week and a half after the accident, when I washed my face the ugly crust just fell away, leaving only a pink spot. A few days later I called Nana and told her that the pink spot was gone, and my face had healed without a scar. I was so grateful that my prayers to God worked. ★
Christine “Tine” Neely
Concord, North Carolina
»Nicolas Excellent eyesight
When I was ten, an optometrist told me I would have to wear glasses. I began wearing them to read, because when I didn't use the glasses, words were out of focus. I'd also have headaches, and my eyes itched a lot.
As I grew spiritually, I didn't want to wear glasses any longer. I began to understand God more and wanted to have a healing of my eyesight. So I started to pray for myself.
My mother told me she would pray for me, too, but that I had to do my part. She asked me to read the New Testament in the Bible. I did what she asked, making an effort to understand what I was reading. At night, before going to sleep, I read the Gospels and St. Paul's letters.
I also read different parts of the Old Testament books of the Bible. A verse that I used constantly in my prayers is from Psalms: “I will praise thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (139:14 ). I stopped being worried about my eyes. I thought, “God has given me the ability to see; therefore, my eyesight has to be adequate, functional, and without any problems.” I was sure this was true. Every day I thanked God for the gift of eyesight.
I think it was this gratitude that healed me. About a year later, I stopped wearing glasses when I noticed they were no longer necessary.
Then in eighth grade I took the entrance exams for a naval academy in my country, and I passed all my tests. We also had rigorous medical examinations, and the doctors didn't find anything wrong with my eyes.
When I moved from Brazil to New Zealand during my last year of high school. I started to pray a lot for God to show me what career I should choose. Right after that, three pilots and someone from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US, came to my school to talk about their work. Then the principal of my school decided to offer a course on air transportation. I took the course and some flying lessons. I loved it. That same year a representative from Massey University, an aviation college in New Zealand, visited our school to talk about the courses they offered. When I saw their presentation. I was very excited and decided that I wanted to be a pilot
I had to take a lot of admission tests to get into college, including a medical examination. The doctor told me my sight was much better than normal, and that my focus was excellent — that I see things more clearly than most people.
After passing all the tests, I began to study aviation. Everything worked out so well — the healing of my eyes and finding a career — that I'm sure it could only be as a result of prayer. Nicolas Gentile de Peyon
Christchurch, New Zealand
The statements made with regard to healing have been verified in writing by those who know of the healing or can vouch for the integrity of the testifiers.
