One summer, our family rented a house by the ocean. Each morning, I was awakened early by a bird whose song was so loud and clear that I was unable to sleep. I would get up and go out into the garden, taking two books with me—the Bible, and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. 

The study of these books in the stillness of the early morning brought much spiritual inspiration, and it became a very special part of my day. Afterward, I would prepare breakfast, and we would eat in the garden at a picnic table. 

One morning as I came out of the house, my daughter ran toward me screaming. She had badly bitten her tongue jumping down from the picnic table, and blood was pouring out of her mouth. With my thought still illumined from my spiritual study, I immediately felt the presence and power of God, divine Love, embracing her. My daughter stopped crying at once. I washed her up, and there was no further problem. The wound had been completely healed in an instant. 

I asked a Christian Science practitioner how this healing could have happened so quickly. She said it was because my thought was already prepared by the prayerful work I had been doing that morning. I was simply conscious of the power of Love. I recognize the importance of this daily study, and I have been an early riser ever since.

Diana Malcolmson
Shelter Island, New York, US