A few years ago, our family took a cruise together to celebrate several important milestones. We enjoyed activities both on the ship and onshore. 

Toward the end of the vacation, I twisted my ankle. The ankle began to swell, and it was painful to walk. Initially, I wasn’t even able to put any weight on the foot, so I hobbled away from the activity I was engaged in to pray. 

My simple prayer was an act of rebellion. Rather than accept that injury and limitation could result from participating in a fun family activity, I refuted this claim. A familiar statement from the Christian Science textbook quickly came to thought: “Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 424). I was striving to know that since God is all-powerful good, there was no other power, such as pain or chance, that could govern me. God alone governs me.