Testimony of Healing August 10, 2009 Issue

HEALING OF SUNBURN AND STOMACH PAIN WHILE TRAVELING

JAN A. DUKE

Earlier this year my family and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to the tropical islands of Fiji. Because we were spending a good amount of time in the hot sun, I immediately began to bathe everyone in sunscreen. Soon the sunscreen (or more likely my application of it) failed, and I was left with severe sunburn. To me, this was a powerful wake-up call to realize I'd been more focused on fears about sun exposure, and the laws of matter associated with it, than on God's protecting care.

Having fair skin, I'd experienced sunburn before and had watched it go through all its uncomfortable stages. But this time I decided to handle it differently. Through prayer, my family has had so many proofs of God's care and protection, including the healing of a dislocated wrist, broken bones, earaches, and skin diseases, that I knew I could rely on God in this situation also. Having practiced the healing laws of Christian Science all my life, I've seen time and again how thought has had a direct effect on my body. So I made a conscious decision to change my thinking to what God thought and knew about me. It was natural for me to turn away from what my body was reporting and listen to the peaceful thoughts God was telling me about myself as His spiritual creation.

As I studied familiar verses from the Bible and from Science and Health, I came across Mrs. Eddy's statement: "We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought that we have transgressed a material law and must of necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure ourselves with the law of Love" (Science and Health, p. 384). In my prayer, I continued to think about the protecting power of God and how it was the only power and was only good—a spiritual fact that naturally eliminated the false laws of matter which claimed to cause pain and suffering.