Several years ago I picked up the phone to call a Christian Science practitioner for the first time. My parents had called practitioners at different times to pray for me when I was a child, but I had never reached out to one on my own. The first name I noticed in the directory in The Christian Science Journal was one I was familiar with from a radio program I had heard and found helpful years before. I felt I had been led in this time of need to ask this person to pray for me.  

On that call to the practitioner, who was also a teacher of Christian Science, I started by asking him about Primary class instruction, a two-week course on Christian Science healing. Then I shared with him what I was dealing with—an overwhelming feeling of responsibility and depression. He agreed to give me metaphysical treatment. Through this help, I was able to see life as a blessing and not a burden and to move forward.

The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote: “The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 15). This passage has become a guide on my journey of spiritual growth. Moment by moment, I have been learning to trust God’s total control of my life.