There are watershed moments in our lives, as some event or spiritual recognition lights up our mental sky and changes us, or sets us on a new path. I’d like to relate one such moment in my life, when the “Daily Prayer,” found in the Manual of The Mother Church, written by the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, won the day. 

It was 1961, and I was a young mother with a very active, rather rambunctious toddler. As people would sometimes call me for help on a particular problem they wanted to work out through Christian Science, I looked forward to some quiet study time during the two or three mornings a week that my son attended nursery school. 

One morning, when the van arrived to pick him up for school, my son decided he didn’t want to go, and he put up quite a fight. He even managed to wedge himself in a horizontal position between the doorjambs, a couple of feet off the ground. That was quite a gymnastic feat, but I was not in the mood to admire it. The kind lady who drove the van tried unsuccessfully to dislodge him. Did I mention he was also strong?