Hereditary condition reversed

Over the course of several years, the nail on one of my big toes thickened, hardened, and became discolored. At first, I assumed that I had injured it in some way and that, over time, the nail would grow out and a healthy nail grow in naturally. But after a couple of years, this had still not happened.

I then recalled that both my mother and my grandmother had had abnormally thick toenails in their advanced years. This was a wake-up call for me. I asked myself, “Am I accepting that I’m susceptible to what seems to be a hereditary condition?” I was very familiar with this statement in the Christian Science textbook pointing out the mental nature of disease and challenging the belief in heredity: “Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and the connection of past mortal thoughts with present. The predisposing cause and the exciting cause are mental” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 178).

Christian Science teaches that we can experience only what we admit into our thought, and we cannot suffer for the thoughts of others. Christ Jesus tells us in his Sermon on the Mount that we need to be single-minded, which I interpret to mean that we should fill our thought with what is true and shut out what is false. Jesus said, “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light” (Luke 11:34). 

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