Several years ago, I often felt quite anxious to the point of finding it difficult to breathe. The first time I felt this sensation, which was accompanied by dizziness, I called a friend and asked if she could visit me, as I did not want to be alone. She came right away and spoke to me of God’s ever-presence and my oneness with Him. She also spoke about my spiritual identity as the expression of God, reflecting stability, completeness, spiritual substance—all the infinite qualities and attributes of Spirit, God. She stayed with me until I wasn’t afraid to be alone. 

During the next couple of months, this friend and her husband came over several times on the weekends to read to me from the Christian Science periodicals.

Up to that point I had only occasionally called a Christian Science practitioner for spiritual treatment. But when the anxiety increased, I asked for help once or twice a week, and then daily. The practitioner and I would talk during the day, and again briefly in the latter part of the evening because of the intensity of the symptoms at night. She would speak to me of God’s peace, assuring me that it couldn’t be taken away from me. This verse for little children, written by Mary Baker Eddy, was a prayer we would say together in the evenings. It reminded me before I went to sleep that I was God’s child and that I could let Him take care of me: