A new life of spiritual understanding
As an adult, however, I found that there were some diseases and discomforts that were not so readily healed. At one point when I was ill with head pains and stomach cramps, a family friend suggested that I have Christian Science treatment. I didn’t know how a mental prayer could heal a physical body, but I agreed to let this friend pray for me. I actually forgot about the problem, and it was some time later that I realized that I wasn’t feeling pain any more. Apparently I was healed! I still didn’t know how the healing had come about and decided that the pain had just gone away on its own.
As I was healed myself, I began to share my enthusiasm for Christian Science with others.
Then after I was married, I had an experience that made me wonder even more about Christian Science. A member of the family became gravely ill and the doctor informed us there was nothing more that medicine could do. I asked for Christian Science treatment for him and there was some improvement. The individual’s fear of death abated and although he did pass on, he lived longer than expected.
The friend who had introduced us to this Christian Science practitioner explained that practitioners looked to Christ Jesus as their example, and studied the Bible for guidance and inspiration. They didn’t dispense material medicine, but helped people spiritually, through beholding the perfect man as Jesus did. Mrs. Eddy explains: “In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy” (Science and Health, p. 477). This “medicine” would uplift our thought to understand that we are spiritual, the sons and daughters of God.
I began to study the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I also read the articles in the Sentinel and The Christian Science Journal. So began a new life of increasing spiritual understanding and the satisfaction of experiencing healing through prayer.
As I was healed myself, I began to share my enthusiasm for Christian Science with others. Before long, to my surprise, I began receiving calls for prayerful help—even from people who had been studying Christian Science longer than I had! This was amazing to me at the time. From these calls, I began to realize that helping others offered a career that was beneficial to them and to me.
All my life I had wanted to do something more than just “exist.” Being a Christian Science practitioner exactly fulfilled this desire. Here was a God-given way to genuinely help my family and friends, and later to extend the healing work by advertising as a Christian Science practitioner. As I advanced in the healing work, I learned that it was important to be always ready to give Christian Science treatment at a moment’s notice, and to trust Truth’s power to heal rather than thinking the healing power was in me personally. I also found that the day went a whole lot better when I took time to “clean my own house”—that is, my thought—with prayer, before I was asked to help others clean theirs.
It has been many years since that first, pivotal experience with Christian Science. While I did not set out to become a Christian Science practitioner, I can say with conviction that this career is unbelievably satisfying. I highly recommend it!
