One evening at a Wednesday testimony meeting, I began to have an upset stomach. I prayed to know that nothing could distract me from God’s love and salvation coming through in the readings or keep me from, in Christ Jesus’ words, being “about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). I had a divine right to be in church. Yet, while praying, I also began forming a backup plan. I decided that if I started to feel nauseated, I could either go to the restroom and wait until my husband was out of the meeting or have a quiet word with him right away, and we could leave to go home.

I continued to pray. Then it dawned on me that if I was genuinely leaning on God, the sustaining infinite, I didn’t need an alternative plan. Having a backup plan would subtly counteract my prayerful work because it would indicate distrust in God’s omnipotent care.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy explains, “. . . man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual” (p. 326).