One afternoon I burned my finger on a very hot curling iron. The pain was immediate and intense, but I met it with the understanding that having been created by and of Spirit, God, I couldn’t be injured. I firmly held to the truth that I am entirely spiritual, whole, and untouched by injury. This conviction was a powerful recognition of my relationship to God, in which no material event or circumstance could alter my true, spiritual identity. 

These words from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, came to thought: “To remove the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct mortal mind with immortal Truth” (p. 415).

My initial conviction of the immortal truth that I am Spirit’s expression was already calming and correcting any mortal sense of being injured or in pain. I realized that I was actively exempting myself from both the belief that man is made of matter instead of Spirit and the effects of that belief. I continued to affirm the immortal truth of my harmony and safety as a spiritual expression of God. Within a few hours, there was no more pain or discomfort and no evidence of a burn.