Discovering what Christian Science is really all about

I’ve grown up in a family that practices Christian Science. We attend church every Sunday; we pray whenever we have a problem; I’ve even had the privilege of attending summer camps for Christian Scientists for a lot of my life. One of the most consistent messages I’ve heard through my years of Sunday School, prayer, and camp is that God is Love and is omnipresent—meaning that Love is everywhere and includes everyone. And yet, for many years I felt as though I were missing something. I felt disconnected from God’s love and couldn’t understand how Christian Science was applicable to my life. I didn’t feel I’d really had healings or would ever have one.  

As high school began, I found myself struggling even more with my understanding of Christian Science. Fortunately, I was part of a program for high school-aged Christian Scientists, and one of the projects we were assigned was to read the textbook on Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, cover to cover, with an adult mentor. 

As I think back on my first couple of months of reading, I’m a bit surprised by how little it seemed I was getting out of the project. I struggled to understand Mrs. Eddy’s complex sentences, and the hundreds of pages ahead of me seemed daunting.