There's just one way to be a swimmer—by doing! The same is true of practicing Christian Science. I speak from experience on both counts.

I was raised in Christian Science. When I grew up I chose to continue in it but soon found myself to be about the same kind of Christian Scientist as I was a swimmer—kiddy pool splasher, afraid of the deep!

But it happens that about the time I needed to be able to go deeper in my understanding of Christian Science healing, I learned an important spiritual lesson from going deeper in the swimming pool! The lesson was, in Bible terms, "Perfect love casteth out fear." ^{I John 4:18.}

One day I saw a "Take the plunge" poster advertising adult swimming lessons in the building where I took our children to "Minnows" (beginning swimming). I decided to sign up.

Instead of allowing us to go gradually from the shallow end to the deep, as I'd envisioned, our teacher began our adult swimming class with the command: "Dive off the diving board, come to the surface and float."

"You can't not float," the instructor assured us. "The principle of buoyancy—a law of physics—holds you up. It doesn't matter how deep the water is; you'll float."

I couldn't believe I did it! I had been afraid of deep water for twenty-five years. But when my desire to learn blossomed into commitment and when I understood something of the laws supporting me, the fear was gone, and I found I couldn't fail.

Later that same week I had a "deep water" experience of another kind. Our little girl was sent home from kindergarten with scarlet fever. I was told that there was an outbreak of this disease in our community.

At first it seemed as though the demand before me was too great, like the demand to plunge into the deep end of the pool.

But I felt God's assurance that He would destroy this fear too—the fear that I couldn't be one of the "doers of the word." ^{James 1:22.}

Christ Jesus wasn't afraid to plunge, to obey God's commands to the fullest. And his instructions to his disciples show he expected us to do so too. "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils." ^{Matt. 10:8.} Then, surely I could take this first step toward proving the healing power of God.

Ready to follow, I opened my Bible to "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." ^{Ps. 37:5.} I especially liked that assurance that He, not I, was doing the healing, and He was enabling me to trust and to commit myself as well.

Tempted to think our daughter's healing was dependent on my understanding (wobbly at best), I suddenly realized that I didn't have to reach Jesus' understanding in order to be sustained by the Christ Science he practiced, and that the healing work Jesus did was scientific. It was based on the divine Principle, God, as Mrs. Eddy discovered when, in obeying this divine power, she was able to heal and teach others to heal. But I didn't have to understand all of this Science, any more than I had to know all Archimedes knew about principles of flotation to be sustained in swimming by the laws he enunciated.

God is our ever-present help; this was my new law of buoyancy. Knowing God's love for all His children, I reasoned that since God is Principle, divine Love, surely His precious Science, or the law of His allness, would also uphold me and my daughter. Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health, "If the student adheres strictly to the teachings of Christian Science and ventures not to break its rules, he cannot fail of success in healing." ^{Science and Health, p. 448.}

As soon as I had seen my daughter's need, I had called a Christian Science practitioner to pray for us. I did all I could to make the child comfortable. That evening the condition worsened, but we continued to pray. All evening I held to this spiritual fact: "The king's daughter is all glorious within." ^{Ps. 45:13.} I was beginning to recognize that every element of her being was purely spiritual. Not cells and sinews but health, intelligence, beauty, integrity, joy—God's attributes—constituted her substance.

I stuck to what I'd learned in Christian Science—that God, Spirit, made all that was made and it was all good. Also, what He creates He maintains—tenderly, precisely, certainly. Disease is neither law nor power and is incapable of producing conditions to govern man. I determined to accept only the spiritual truth of her identity—only the reality that God, divine Love, is doing all the causing, constituting, and controlling.

Soon I was no longer afraid, and our daughter slept soundly all night. In the morning she was much better, and the following day she was entirely well, although we still kept her home from school to comply with state law.

God truly does gently lead all those that are with young, as the Bible promises. ^{See Isa. 40:11 .} Not just those with children but everyone who is cherishing Christian healing for the first time. Starting right at our point of need and understanding, Christ, Truth, lifts us higher and higher.

One plunge in the pool didn't make me an Olympic swimmer, but it was a start, encouraging me to keep doing better. So was that night of my daughter's healing a point of beginning in my sacred commitment to Christian Science—of studying it lovingly, longingly, to learn and live more of its rules.

"A grain of Christian Science does wonders for mortals, so omnipotent is Truth, but more of Christian Science must be gained in order to continue in well doing," ^{Science and Health, p. 449.} Science and Health states. I'm enjoying continuing. I'm a long way from walking on the water. But my swimming (both kinds) is getting stronger with each lap, and I'm gaining more strength each day.