Testimony of Healing February 1, 2016 Issue

Healing during a church service

Joy Thompson Dingee

A number of years ago I had a wonderful healing during a Christian Science church service. I was experiencing symptoms of an abscessed tooth, and though I had been to a dentist regularly in the past, I decided that I wanted to handle this situation through Christian Science. I had grown up in Christian Science, and it had proved to be very effective in meeting my health-care needs.

I called a Christian Science practitioner, and she agreed to give me Christian Science treatment. I don’t remember the exact thoughts she shared with me, but they were very reassuring. I’m sure that she was praying to see my perfection as an idea of God. About a week went by. Sometimes I was tempted to wonder if I had enough faith and understanding to meet this challenge, but I did not doubt the efficacy of Christian Science, just as a math student would not doubt the principle of mathematics.

In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy refers to “the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing” (p. 107). It never occurred to me to have a contingency plan of going to a dentist for this situation because I felt that the path I had chosen was the best and most effective one for me. I remember telling the practitioner that, in regard to listening for God’s messages, I very much related to Jacob at Peniel when he said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26). She chuckled at this and said that my persistence would indeed be blessed.