Painful arm condition healed

It is so comforting to know that the divine Principle of healing can be proved in our lives. Some years ago I had been struggling for several months with a painful condition in my arm. Though I’d prayed about this off and on, I think at first I went along with an underlying suggestion that the discomfort would just go away with time. But that was incorrect reasoning—time is not a healer. 

The condition seemed to worsen, sometimes even keeping me awake at night. My anxiety about the arm increased, because my daughter was expecting her first child—my first grandchild—and naturally, I wanted to be able to help her out when this baby arrived. I was concerned that I would not be able to hold the baby.

I became more committed to praying diligently about this condition. I had experienced many healings before, and I knew that I could refuse to be impressed by whatever the body was trying to claim. I affirmed that I was the complete and perfect reflection of God, Spirit, and not a material being. I could not have anything that God had not given me. Even though the condition persisted, the understanding of “perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration” helped to remove a lot of fear (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 259). 

One Saturday morning, when I was scheduled to work in the Christian Science Reading Room, I found I could barely move my arm. Getting dressed was a challenge, and I wondered if I should try to find a substitute. But I knew it was my right place to be in that Reading Room, and the angel thought persisted that I could not be harmed by working for my church, so I went. While serving, I prayed about the Reading Room’s healing purpose in the community. I also declared that the collective prayers of the members of my church for the church, the Reading Room, and the community were strong and effective. 

At some point during my time there, it dawned on me that this arm condition was only a mesmeric mental suggestion, an illusion of mortal mind, and not an actual physical condition. It had no power over me. Now, I had known that intellectually, but somehow, while I was serving in the Reading Room and feeling so nourished by the prayers of the membership, that fact seemed to reach the very core of my being and wake me up. I saw I had nothing to fear. There was no material condition that could limit or obstruct my identity as a unique expression of God. I remember feeling a sense of joy and dominion.

The physical condition of the arm didn’t change immediately, but I knew it could have no power to dictate my thoughts or actions. The healing was complete soon after this time in the Reading Room. When I went to help my daughter with her new baby a few weeks later, I was not only able to hold that baby for hours, but I was also able to help move some furniture around.

That was nearly six years ago. Other grandchildren have joined the family, and I’ve had the delight of holding them in my arms as well! I’m profoundly grateful for the practical truth Christian Science gives us.

Patricia Waterson
Williamsburg, Virginia, US