My dad was a good man and a good country doctor who would make house calls well into the night. One day, when I was about ten years old, a new family moved into our neighborhood. They were Christian Scientists. My parents, knowing no more of Christian Science than the general medical literature provided, cast subtle aspersions on them.

Ten years later, my dad told me that the various maladies of an overwhelming percentage of the patients who came to his office with medical problems were entirely mental in nature. His words stuck with me and were foundational in preparing me to later embrace Christian Science. It helped me realize that being aware of my thinking was crucial. I could either accept a particular physical complaint as my reality or I could say, in the words of Jesus, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Luke 4:8). Many thoughts that come to us are suggestions rather than facts or truth, and I could choose where to put my faith and trust. This was a major awakening for me.

My growth in Christian Science was gradual, the result of an accumulation of insights. At first, I saw others healed. My wife was healed of infectious hepatitis (see Caroline Cox-Simon, “When I read a testimony in an issue of the . . . ,” The Christian Science Journal, April 1990), and our six-year-old son was healed of hearing problems. I began to turn my thoughts away from the belief that we are helpless in the face of disease to the knowledge that God is our omnipresent healer.