Testimony of Healing December 15, 2003 Issue

The commitment 'to live love' brings healings

Carol Van Pelt with contributions from C. J. Van Pelt

In my career as an interior designer, I've often recalled a quote by the celebrated 19th-century designer, William Morris: "Have nothing in your home which you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

As a practical matter, working with a client to remove anything from a room that doesn't meet these two criteria is sometimes a valuable preliminary to achieving a more ordered, less cluttered atmosphere. Then new items can be carefully chosen that result in a room filled with beauty and usefulness.

Similarly, through the study of Christian Science, I've learned to remove from thought whatever is unnecessary or undesirable. Mary Baker Eddy's counsel in her book The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany has been a beacon to me: "... keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them" (p. 210). Clearing out mental tchotchke—thoughts that are not useful to spiritual growth or well-being, as well as those that aren't beautiful or God-related—has for me opened the way for an influx of ideas from divine Love. These ideas have brought harmony and healing to my life. This has meant replacing limited, material conceptions of health, resources, other people, and building on what is true spiritually. That passage continues: "... nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness."