Testimony of Healing September 11, 2017 Issue

Loving relationship restored

Jean Schoch Gioioso

We all want to get along with family members and friends. Better yet, we want to love them. And best of all, we want to love them unconditionally through thick and thin, good times and rough patches. But it’s not always easy! I had an experience many years ago that taught me an important lesson about praying about relationships with other people.

As a teenager, I thought I had a good and loving relationship with a particular family member. But our relationship went through a difficult time when this person became upset about another family member’s decisions. I knew this beloved relative was upset, but I was hurt, feeling that I was being treated as if I had made those bad decisions, too. I was being ignored and rejected, and couldn’t seem to do anything to “fix” our relationship.

I remember sitting on my bed one day really feeling sad. I attended the Christian Science Sunday School, where we were taught from an early age that God is Love. We were shown how Jesus taught the two great commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (see Matthew 22:35–39). In this case, I reasoned, my “neighbor” was my dear family member. But I was confused—I was trying to love this relative, but my love was being rejected. I was discouraged and upset.

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