My husband started a major remodel of our vegetable garden, including replacing the raised beds. He had purchased new boards and asked me to help move them from the truck to the back garden. The boards were very long and heavy, and at one point I wondered if it was too much weight for me to handle. But we completed the task, and I was grateful to have been able to help.

However, the next afternoon I began to feel pain in one upper arm and shoulder. It quickly escalated, and soon I wasn’t able to move that arm, and I felt faint and sick to my stomach. I realized that while moving the heavy boards, I had let into thought the possibility of injury, and I began to feel afraid. I knew I needed to handle the fear, and I started to pray in earnest.

At that week’s Wednesday testimony meeting of my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, one of our members told of a healing of painful inflammation in her knee joint. She knew, as we’re taught in Christian Science, that it’s thought that needs to be addressed, not a physical condition. So she began to watch her thinking and to reject any suggestion of resentment or anger. She also denied that she could suffer for having engaged in joyful and loving activity. The pain stopped, and she gained complete freedom.