Question of the Week January 17, 2011 Issue

How has prayer helped you overcome difficult memories or traumatic experiences?

Marie, Theo, Susie, Sarah

My dad left our family when I was seven, and my mom raised me and my two sisters by herself. Much of my early childhood was a blur, but when I reached my 20s I began having flashbacks of being sexually molested by my dad. A few years later, I found Christian Science, and when I started to study it, I learned that I could reject bad memories because they had no truth, no reality to them. They weren’t from God, so they weren’t, in an absolute sense, real. I began to see that my dad had been a victim of a lie, called evil, but as God’s child he was always perfect. Little by little, I realized that the past events had no power over me—in the present. And, though, by his choice, I don’t have contact with my dad, I do have compassion for him and I’m free of fear and flashbacks.

Marie — San Francisco, California, US

 

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