At the end of my freshmen year in college, I really began to see the need to have Christian Science Primary class instruction. Since I already had a practice of sorts (praying for the dog, cat, sheep, cattle, and horses on the family ranch, and occasionally for friends in high school and college), I knew it would be good to have the metaphysical “workbench” and “toolbox” that Christian Science Primary class instruction would provide. 

My family made it clear they felt I was too young to apply, but I made a conscious decision to make the best of the situation and use my time to practice Christian Science to the best of my ability. I yearned to feel closer to God. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, says in the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Neither philosophy nor skepticism can hinder the march of the Science which reveals the supremacy of Mind” (p. 209). 

I was married just before my senior year in college. In early fall of that year, I talked with a Christian Science practitioner about how I might go about applying for class. The practitioner asked me if I knew any Christian Science teachers, liked the lectures of a particular member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, or enjoyed the articles by someone who wrote for the The Christian Science Journal or Sentinel. She also suggested I might pray with the desire to be led to the right teacher, and then quietly and humbly listen to God for direction. 

For a couple of months, I deeply prayed about this. Using the Journal that had just arrived, I found three teachers in three different states who stood out to me. Since I had lost my daddy when I was two, I felt I needed a male role model, and assumed I would be inspired to apply for class with a male teacher. Not so! All three individuals who stood out to me were women. I wrote three letters and gave a family member the letters to mail.

In three months’ time, when I had not heard back from any of the three teachers, I found out that the family member had thrown the letters away instead of mailing them. Saying nothing, I just continued to pray. I had begun to see how essential it was to defend my thought against the idea that there was some force that was powerful and could interfere with and undermine a life dedicated to God, the only power.

After my husband and I graduated from college, we moved to another city. The first Sunday after church, I enjoyed visiting with a woman on the steps of the church for close to an hour. Toward the end of the conversation, I happened to ask her if she was “class taught” and who her teacher was. She said that yes, she was class taught, and told me who her teacher was. 

I went home and immediately looked up the teacher she had mentioned in the current Journal and called this woman. We talked over the phone, and intuitively I felt she was the right teacher for me. When I got off the phone, I went back to check the Journal I had kept all those months. This woman, I realized, was one of the people I had tried to send a letter to, but it had been thrown away. I was moved to tears by this “coincidence” of the human and the divine.

Six weeks later I sat joyously in this teacher’s class and learned about all those precious needed metaphysical, spiritual tools for a lifetime of effective, Christianly scientific healing. When class was over, my teacher gave me an application for listing as a healer in the Journal. Although I didn’t apply immediately, I’ve now been advertising in the Journal for over 30 years. Oh, how I cherish class instruction! It should be tops on each spiritual thinker’s must-do list!