I shall always be grateful for my first healing in Christian Science

Stanley Rueff

I shall always be grateful for my first healing in Christian Science. During my last year in high school I experienced occasional attacks of pain in my right side, but since the attacks were not prolonged or severe, I gave them little attention. At that time I was attending a Christian Science Sunday School, where I had learned to rely on God for healing, but I did no specific work to heal this condition.

One morning I had a severe attack, sharp and painful, and I was unable to get out of bed. I thought of my relationship to God as His child, and applied other truths that I had learned in Sunday School, and in a short time the pain subsided. My uncle and aunt, with whom I was then living and who were not Scientists, desired that I be examined by a physician. The tests indicated appendicitis, and an operation was recommended. I informed the doctor that I was a Christian Scientist, and that regardless of the tests I intended to rely on Christian Science for healing.

Mild attacks continued to occur, but each time I prayed, and the pain was overcome. A few months later I entered the Navy air force and passed the rigid physical examinations. However, while in the preflight school undergoing rigorous physical training, and later when flying at high altitude, I still had a fear that pressure might rupture the appendix. Gradually, as I studied Science and better understood my spiritual makeup, not subject to material law, and as my relationship to God became clearer to me, fear and anxiety were overcome, and the attacks ceased.

Later, in talking with a Christian Science practitioner, I mentioned the fear of repetition of the attacks and was reminded that what God had healed could not return. That was over ten years ago, and there has been no return of the condition.

I am grateful for the truths I early learned in Sunday School, which have helped to sustain me both in military service and now in my civilian work. I am grateful to be a member of The Mother Church, and of a branch church, where I have served in many capacities, including those of Sunday School teacher, chairman of the executive board, and First Reader. I am also grateful for class instruction, which has given me a fuller understanding of God, for Christ Jesus, for Mrs. Eddy, and for the truth that heals.

Stanley Rueff
Florissant, Missouri

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