Last summer my three adult children came home and insisted that I check myself into the hospital’s emergency room. I had been experiencing urinary problems, insomnia, and weight loss, and was impatient, unhappy, and cranky. 

I spent three nights in the hospital and was informed by the doctors that my kidneys were failing. I felt unable to pray as taught in Christian Science and couldn’t seem to focus long enough to read even one paragraph of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Fortunately, I could listen any time of the day or night to the weekly Bible Lessons from the Christian Science Quarterly (at quarterly.christianscience.com) and to articles from the Christian Science periodicals (on JSH-Online.com). Every night I would listen to the wonderful truths in these Lessons and articles and then wrestle with opposing suggestions that I was helpless, weak, and separated from God and my true, spiritual self. I affirmed that I was, on the contrary, the child of God, created in His image and likeness—spiritual, not material.

Over a five-month period, I employed several different Christian Science practitioners. At my children’s insistence, I also agreed to a series of medical tests and checkups, but I took no drugs and addressed through Christian Science treatment each issue raised by the testing. Each practitioner I worked with provided valuable spiritual inspiration.