I first learned how to pray—and the value of humility—in Christian Science Sunday School. 

Once, when I was seven or eight years old, I was in trouble and humbly turned to God. My older brother and his friend had invited me to join them in a joyride down a hayfield strewn with piles of newly cut hay. Speeding down the hill in a car, we plowed through pile after pile. It was fun—until we reached the bottom of the hill. After they turned the car around to go back up, the rear tires could not gain traction but just spun and spun. We were apparently stranded, with no way out. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. 

After watching my brother and his friend struggle to find a solution, I went off to be alone and pray. I remember kneeling in the hayfield and turning wholeheartedly to God, slowly praying the Lord’s Prayer that Christ Jesus gave us, which I had been taught in Sunday School. When I finished, I stood up and noticed that my brother and his friend were loading heavy rocks into the trunk of the car. They’d found a solution. With the added weight, the tires dug in, and we were able to motor back up to the road and return home. (Much later, I realized with regret that the farmer would have had to gather up all that hay and restack it into piles.)