Bookstores are filled with self-help and spiritual guidebooks. They promise to inspire you, to lead you to find the "inner child." If you are searching for spiritual answers, how can you be sure of what will truly help?

The book most successful in solving problems is one of the oldest—the Bible. Every challenge that mankind faces today finds its answer in the Bible's spiritual message. For instance, to learn who we are as God's child, we can open to the first chapter of this book. There we are told that God created man, male and female, in His image and likeness. Beholding His entire creation, He saw that everything was good.

If someone is carrying guilt for past mistakes or has felt victimized, however, it may seem impossible to believe that anything can be completely good. There was a time when I felt this way. As a young girl I had been molested once by a neighbor whom I had loved and trusted. Like a "textbook case," I carried the guilt and humiliation of that encounter for years. I was afraid of relationships with others, thinking that they always must have an ulterior motive. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy!

When I decided to begin seriously addressing this situation, I was desperate to discover my true, spiritual identity. Daily I humbly prayed to do whatever it was God wanted me to do. I really had no idea what that was at the time, but felt that I needed to put aside all human planning and listen for God's direction. My healing came about through studying the Bible along with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Its author, Mary Baker Eddy, devoted consecrated study to the Bible in search of the laws of God, the Science which Christ Jesus demonstrated in healing sickness and sin. Her discovery is recorded in this book.

After about a year of diligent study and prayer, I was beginning to get a glimpse of what it means to be created in God's own image. Around that time, I attended a meeting for young people. I listened in a large, crowded auditorium, as a speaker talked about our nature as God's child, perfect, untouched by anything impure. The neighbor from so many years before came to mind. Surprisingly, I had never given any thought to healing hatred toward this man. I felt the hurt was too deep, and besides I had been carrying it with me for years! However, as Science and Health states, "Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies" (p. 162).

Instantly, it seemed that the auditorium was filled with light. I realized that God, Love, could never create one idea that could hurt another; therefore I had never actually been hurt! The spiritual fact was that I had never been a victim, and my neighbor, as God's perfect child, had never been a villain. In truth, we both expressed the innocence and purity of divine Love. I was filled with forgiveness and compassion for us both. I also felt immense physical relief as I let go of this terrible burden.

Months of reading and prayer had prepared me to receive "the sunlight of Truth," and all of the mental anguish I had been feeling for years was completely swept away. This is in direct contrast to the belief that victims of abuse are scarred forever and must learn to live with it. This healing changed my life completely. Soon after that I met my husband-to-be, and by then I was ready for a close relationship. In the Bible, Paul declares, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17).

To understand the Science of Christ involves a consistent effort to learn more of man's relation to his Father-Mother God. There may be times when this Science seems hard to understand, and one may wonder, "If I can't understand it, but I still want a spiritual approach to life, why not go to something that is easier to comprehend?" But one should be alert not to be distracted from the genuine spiritual truth, which regenerates and heals.

An effort to water down truth to make it more palatable or to diminish the demand to follow Christ Jesus offers a spurious mixture of truth and misleading beliefs. Christ-healing requires firm, constant reliance on divine Principle, Love, the one cause. We don't have to do the impossible—bring Truth down to a mortal level. We can reject whatever is not based on divine Principle, and be healed.

PSALMS

The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord: and he delighteth in his
way. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down: for the Lord
upholdeth him with his hand.

Psalms 37:23, 24