A couple of years ago I was hiking with a friend. She had a child in a baby carrier, and we had a very steep hill to climb to get to the place where we were staying. I had volunteered to carry her child in the carrier to give her a break, but on the way up I began to fear that this vigorous activity might be too much for me. Even though I felt perfectly fine, the memory of heart problems that had challenged my mom came to mind. 

After returning the child to her mother at the top of the hill, I began to cough uncontrollably and felt sharp pains in my chest. I went to my room to rest, gripped by fear that I might have one of the many ailments advertised in the media. However, because I’d had so many healings in the past through prayer in Christian Science, the fear was quickly replaced by confidence in God and His healing power. The cough subsided, and I was able to return to the group activities in the lodge where we were staying.

Later, when I returned to my own home, the cough periodically returned, and with it, sharp pains. I was tempted to focus on each of the different symptoms, thinking I could pray one way about one symptom and another way for a different symptom. It felt as though it was going to be a slow recuperation. But I had learned that prayer in Christian Science is not about focusing on symptoms or planning for a long recuperation period. It is about starting with God’s perfection and seeing ourselves as created in the likeness of our flawless Maker. I knew that since God is the sole creator of us all, I hadn’t inherited any problems from a human parent and couldn’t be influenced by news headlines.