In the fourth grade, I had a problem in school. I had been academically successful in math and other skills until that point, so when I started failing math, it was clear that something was wrong.

I don’t remember how we determined this, but the problem was that I was confusing my numbers: 4’s became 7’s; 3’s, 6’s, and 9’s blended together. Today, it would probably be diagnosed as a form of dyslexia—a learning disorder. I was doing the math correctly but using wrong numbers.

I remember praying about this with my dad and a Christian Science practitioner. We talked about the concepts of sight and light. In the Bible there are many stories featuring light and accounts of Jesus restoring people’s sight. At the time, I had been praying to understand more about Truth, a name for God in Christian Science, and I realized that sight is a symbol of understanding. Mary Baker Eddy explains the Science of how Christ Jesus healed others, and notes that “Christian Science brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal harmony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 293).