The Touch of Class December 24, 2012 Issue

In this occasional series, individuals share how taking Christian Science Primary class instruction has strengthened their spiritual understanding, and brought increasing inspiration and healing to their lives.

Beautiful answers

Emily Reynolds Smith—Boston, Massachusetts

Credit: Nathan Smith

I always knew I would take class instruction in Christian Science some day. By the time I was a teenager, I had a potential teacher of Christian Science picked out—I’d enjoyed reading a Sentinel article she’d written, and a spiritual intuition told me to keep her name in mind. I knew that the next step for me would be calling up this individual and talking with her about attending her class. However, as the years passed from high school to college, the impetus to pick up the phone and make the call never came. Several of my friends went through class instruction during college, and I wanted to be ready, too. But in my heart, I knew that it just wasn’t the right time yet.

Well, the “right time” came when I was least expecting it. About six months after I’d graduated from college, I found myself in an unhappy situation. I was making some very poor moral choices, even though I knew they were wrong and had prayed for years to overcome these issues. I felt so ashamed and separated from God, and knew I needed to call a Christian Science practitioner to help me pray. 

While I was considering whom to call, the name of the teacher I’d picked out all those years ago popped into my head. “No way!” I thought. My first contact with her shouldn’t be to work through such an embarrassing problem, right? I wanted this person to think I was ready for class instruction, not to hear how much I was struggling with a major moral issue. 

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