Three simple prayers

Several months ago I was climbing a tree near the back door of our house and injured my heel and ankle when I jumped out of it. It hurt quite a bit. My dad saw what happened and came over and asked me how I was. I said it hurt, but I thought I could go up the hill to care for the animals on our small farm, which was my usual job. My dad thought this would be OK.

I immediately turned to God, both before and after my dad talked with me, to know that I was in His care and protection. I started by saying something called the “no” prayer to myself—basically, a denial that there can be sensation or intelligence in anything physical or material. I’d heard about the “no” prayer the year before from a Christian Science speaker at my church, and it was a good place to begin. I thought about it as I went to the animals, and the prayer helped me not feel confused into thinking that I was a material individual who’d suffered an accident. I was able to go about my duties without feeling overly burdened.

Two days after I’d jumped out of the tree, I told my mom about my foot hurting. She said she would pray for me, and asked if I wanted to talk to a Christian Science practitioner. I decided not to call a practitioner right then, but I did continue praying for myself during that week. I went to school like always, although it was uncomfortable to put my weight on the foot.

I almost felt that the healing was so quick that it was impossible!

After a week and a half or so, however, my foot hurt more often, and I worried that maybe I had broken it. The fear occasionally crept in that I lived in a material world, and that maybe I needed to get an X-ray or a cast.

One day soon after, I went over to help my neighbor with some yard work. That day I started to realize that nothing could control my thinking except God, and I didn’t need to be afraid that I wouldn’t be healed for a certain amount of time. I thought back to the talk the speaker had given at my church on the subject of “simple prayers.” The speaker had outlined three different kinds of prayers:

• “No” (denying the lie).
• “Help” (asking God to help you in your need).
• “Giving thanks” (acknowledging that God is real and is here to help us when we need help).

It came to me to pray further with these simple prayers. I continued on from the “no” prayer to the “help” prayer, and I asked God what I needed to know to be able to express Him in my complete, individual way. Then I remembered the last prayer, and it helped me realize that I needed to give thanks to God! In other words, I needed to really reinforce what I was praying and know that God was there helping me at that time. For me, this meant being happy and thankful God was with me and taking care of me. I prayed like this pretty much constantly for two days, and on the third day I realized that my heel and ankle weren’t bothering me anymore. The healing was immediate at that point. The “thank you” prayer was like a ladder that got me out of a pit.

That morning I got out of bed and felt no pain at all. In fact, I almost felt that the healing was so quick that it was impossible! But then my mom showed me a testimony from the “Fruitage” chapter of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The testimony, called “A Case of Mental Surgery,” explains how a man was instantaneously healed of a broken upper arm by reading Science and Health and by “denying that there could be a break or accident in the realm of divine Love” (p. 606 ). This testimony showed me that the kind of healing I’d experienced is possible and even normal, and can result from a simple change of thought. After reading it, I felt that I am more capable of praying for myself and others in the future, and I felt very grateful that Christian Science was there to help me through challenges.

I should add that the healing was complete—I was again able to help out with chores and help our neighbor without pain, and I even resumed cutting branches off the trees that line our property, which involves climbing dozens of feet in the air. I’m grateful for a better understanding of what prayer really is.