TeenConnect: Your Healings July 15, 2024 Issue

I found joy again

Rhea Patel

Originally appeared online in the teen series Your Healings - May 28, 2024.

AARON CRANFORD — STAFF

A few years ago, I heard something disturbing on the radio here in Singapore, where I live. Someone shared a scary experience they had been through, and the details frightened me. I didn’t know what to think. I was feeling overwhelmed by thoughts about what I’d heard, and my happiness started to fade. These feelings even affected my schoolwork. I decided to pray because I knew prayer could help me.

I started thinking about where my happiness comes from. I’ve learned in Christian Science that since God is the only power, the only creator, and only good, qualities such as joy come from God, so they can’t be taken away, even by scary or bad thoughts. My joy could never go away because God is ever present, so the happiness and joy that I express must always be present, too.

Someone shared a scary experience they had been through, and the details frightened me.