I woke one morning with an ache in a tooth that a dentist had filled more than a year before. He had said at the time that I might eventually need a crown to replace the tooth. I had forgotten about his warning, but it came back to me now along with the pain. As I went about my day, I prayed to understand more deeply my spiritual perfection as the complete likeness of God, good (see Genesis 1:26, 27), without any suffering or history of decay. By the next day, though, the pain was so intense that I had to stop everything I was doing and really face the fearful thoughts that seemed to be standing in the way of healing.

I realized that the first thought I needed to address was the assumption that a visit to the dentist would be the fastest and best route to relief. I countered that notion vigorously. As a lifelong Christian Scientist, I had experienced many quick healings of all kinds of conditions. For example, I had been healed of incapacitating back pain within a few days, significant progress coming when I made a commitment to turn only to God for both mental and physical comfort. 

At the previous week’s testimony meeting at my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, a couple of citations from the readings had particularly resonated with me, including this one from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Banish the belief that you can possibly entertain a single intruding pain which cannot be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way you can prevent the development of pain in the body. No law of God hinders this result” (p. 391).