Testimony of Healing November 21, 2005 Issue

GOD'S CARE AT THANKSGIVING

BEVERLY HOGAN

One morning out of the blue, my husband of ten years announced that he was leaving. He said that he no longer wanted to be married to me.

During almost all of my marriage, I had attended Al-Anon, a 12-step support group for families and friends of alcoholics, where members share "experience, strength, and hope." I often went to meetings when things were rocky at home. But now I threw myself into the program as if I were drowning and this was my only hope for survival. I started attending meetings three to five times a week, valuing the encouragement and sense of community they gave me, and I continued to be a member over the next 15 years.

It was during this time that I first became acquainted with Christian Science. A friend gave me a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I was interested in the ideas I was reading, but it was a gradual immersion. In retrospect, I feel that my life up to that point prepared me both to find and eventually to accept the truths of this religion. In the Al-Anon program, a member chooses a sponsor to confide in, and while I didn't realize it at the time, the common denominator of each mentor I chose was that she would quote Scripture or talk to me about God. This enabled me to continue working and to function from day to day. Later, a statement from Science and Health described for me what had been taking place in my thought: "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (p. vii).

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