As a young woman, I decided to marry because at that particular time I just wanted a child. It was not surprising, then, that once I was married I was not happy. I did pray about this. However, at the time I did not find much peace. When a beautiful son arrived, he had health problems that were considered life-threatening. Feeling dissatisfied with the marriage and discouraged over my son's ill health, I finally turned unreservedly to God for help. I realized that my earlier, selfish motives for marriage needed changing and elevating, so through prayer I strove to become more unselfish in my approach to the marriage. Instead of mentally criticizing my partner, I started watching my own thought and praying with the truths I was learning in Christian Science. I also strove to express more of God's qualities each day and to demonstrate more fully my relationship to God.

I often turned to this statement from the Bible: "For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called" (Isa. 54:5). Today my marriage is happy and sound, with God at the centre.

Through the teachings of Christian Science, which my husband and I both loved, my son's health was restored. Later, when he was about twelve years old, he had taken a job as a paperboy. One night he was roughed up by some boys who were well known as troublemakers in his school. They threatened to attack him again if they had the opportunity. That night, after attending to our son, I immediately went to my Bible and Science and Health. I felt that more than anything else we needed a sense of God's protection. The ninety-first Psalm came to mind: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust" (verses 1, 2).

Our son wished to continue his newspaper job. He did not want to be intimidated by those boys' assertions that the attacks would continue and be much more severe if he told their school principal. We decided to rely completely on the truths brought out in the ninety-first Psalm, knowing that his safety was not in matter and that man is never vulnerable to evil but is always "in the secret place of the most High." Our son continued his paper run, and was completely protected from any further attacks.

Although we did not immediately report this incident to the principal, in the following days the problem did come to his attention. The ringleader of this unruly group of boys, after his parents were consulted, was sent to a correctional school. After this, there were no more attacks made on any newspaper boy, and the behaviour of the remaining boys in this group also improved. Our son and these boys eventually became friends.

In the late 1980s my husband, who was in a shared business situation, found that through mismanagement and other problems outside of his control, the business had gone into severe debt. Every day resolute prayer about the true source of our supply was necessary. This resulted in our having enough income to meet our personal needs and to pay back the debts. By learning to put God first and trust Him to care for all our family needs, I have gained a sense of the ever-presence of divine substance. This understanding has met the enormous financial demands made on us, and we have enjoyed many years of adequate supply.

Recently I was disturbed to find that my teenage daughter had developed a growth. I spent much time in prayer. My daughter joined me in daily prayer and study. She and I have had so many wonderful healings, we were not about to give up on this one. I found a testimony in an issue of the Sentinel very helpful. A woman who had a noticeable growth prayed with this statement by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health: "Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death" (p. 242).

This was not a quick healing, and I saw that I needed to dissolve in my thought the aggressive suggestion that Christian Science could not heal this particular problem. I had to relinquish the feeling that I was personally responsible for my daughter's well-being. I knew that in reality man has only one Mother and Father, who is God, the one Mind. After a time, we engaged a Christian Science practitioner to treat us.

Then my daughter also developed the flu. Once again, I affirmed that her heritage was from God only and was entirely good. I began to really feel the impetus of Christ, Truth. While I prayed, it became clear that we are not vulnerable to disease just because someone else may seem to have suffered from it. Disease is not a cause or a reality. God is the only cause. Science and Health says, "Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress" (p. 170).

I became convinced that no apparent physical condition could ever threaten my daughter's true life; therefore no such condition could actually develop in her. I became convinced for the first time that I could not be intimidated into fussing over this problem. There is only one Mother, God, and this Mother has complete dominion. When I arrived home that day, it was not surprising that my daughter had risen and was eating normally. The flu was healed, and within a few days she joyously told me that the growth had dissolved also.

To say I am grateful for these wonderful healings would be an understatement. But to know that one has found the truth of being for all eternity is best of all. I am grateful for the daily opportunity to help others discover this truth for themselves.

Adella Hughes
North Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia