One morning about three years ago, I discovered a large lump in one breast. I was overwhelmed with fear and immediately called a Christian Science practitioner and arranged to visit her. Having been raised in Christian Science, I had seen many healing in my life, so it was very natural and comforting to think of relying on prayer for healing.

The first thing the practitioner did was to assure me that I didn't have to be afraid. We talked about the fact that because God is the only real power in the universe, I had an inseparable relationship to Him. The Bible states that we are God's reflection, which means that we are now and eternally like Him—spiritual, perfect (see Gen. 1:26-27).

The practitioner and I prayed together in weekly visits for almost a year. During that time, a lot of things came to light that needed attention in my life. I felt a prevailing lack of joy, and I had low self-esteem. Also, the pressure and responsibility of being a single parent sometimes felt overwhelming.

In an effort to understand better my own spiritual nature, and to uncover obstacles in my thinking that might be blocking my healing, the practitioner and I researched the spiritual significance of concepts such as yield, dissolve,and viewpoint. I prayed to realize that since God was the only power, anything opposed to Him had to yield to Him and dissolve. I had to change my viewpoint and see my true spiritual identity as God's perfect creation. I also found inspiration from a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal that describes our relationship to God by saying that we are "the noblest work of God," reflecting beauty, power, and grace from Him (see No. 51). Keeping these ideas in mind, we focused our prayers on my identity as an individual emanation of the beauty, power, and grace of God.

During this time, as I was preparing to go on a family vacation, I noticed another lump in my other breast, but this one was very painful. I called the practitioner for help. She said she would pray right then. Within a few hours the pain was gone—and did not return.

There were times during this year when I became discouraged because it seemed as if there was no physical healing taking place. But I realized that what I needed to do was change my viewpoint so that I could really see and understand that my spiritual perfection was a real and permanent fact right then. At first, I had difficulty doing this. But the more I prayed, the easier it was to see myself as created perfect by God. And every week, as I studied the Bible and Science and Health, I gained a steadily increasing assurance of God's presence.

Then one day, while taking a shower, I noticed that there were no longer any lumps at all. They were completely gone. I felt in awe of God's power, and I just quietly said, "Thank you, Father." Over the next few days I felt as if I were walking on air. I thought of these words in Science and Health: "The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, exchanging it for spiritual perception, and exchanging human concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being" (p. 531). I feel that this is exactly what had occurred to bring about my healing. My lack of joy, self-esteem, and the overwhelming sense of responsibility also were all healed as a result of prayer.

Another healing happened during this same time. As a result of straining my back many years earlier, I had been having back pain for quite a while. It had become very painful for me to drive long distances or sit in straight-backed chairs. On a few occasions, I became incapacitated and had to lie flat on my back for several days. One day, I suddenly realized that I could move with complete freedom from pain. I believe that the prayerful treatment I was receiving—in particular what the practitioner and I were seeing about my perfection—also healed the back problem.

Since then, I have gone camping and slept on the ground, I've driven 1,200 miles on a vacation, and I can sit in any type of chair, all with no discomfort whatsoever.

I am so grateful for these healings, and I continue to rely on prayer for all my needs.