Teens February 26, 2018 Issue

A simple shift in thought

Japhet Hoff

I’d been waiting for this trip for years. At my school, we get the special opportunity to go to Costa Rica in eighth grade. I’d spent a long time anticipating everything we would see—the waterfalls, as well as birds and other wildlife that are unique to that country. But after all my excitement, just a week before the trip I started to feel horrible.

I had an upset stomach and a bad cough. I was super sad, because at the time I thought that there was no way I’d be able to go on the trip, no matter how much I’d been looking forward to it.

After being sad for a few days, I finally “woke up” mentally and realized I wasn’t helpless. I could take action by praying. I talked to my parents, and one of the ideas we discussed was how this healing was already complete. That might sound strange, but through attending the Christian Science Sunday School, and through other healings I’ve had, I knew that the starting point for prayer is the fact that my perfection is unchanging, because I am spiritual, not material. A spiritual idea doesn’t change, because it’s the expression of God, who is Spirit. It is always whole, always the expression of health. This meant that no matter what I seemed to be experiencing, my true, actual being was perfect right then. Through prayer, I could see this more clearly and experience that healing in a concrete way.

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