Two weeks ago, my daughter came home after school feeling very poorly. I didn’t know about the illness until I heard, “Mom, will you read to me from Science and Health?” Science and Health is a book all about spiritual healing. It’s the textbook of Christian Science.
I was cooking dinner, so as soon as I settled cooking pots on the stove down long enough to leave, I went into her bedroom to see what was happening.
Jenna lay in bed under thick covers. I sat down at her side and rested my hand on her arm. She was burning up with a raging heat and complained of a horrendous headache. She rarely complains about anything, so for her to even mention a problem meant it was no little struggle.
As I listened for angel thoughts to share, I just loved her. I looked into her eyes and saw a beloved child of God. I reminded her of how loved she was. I reassured her of the healing presence of God that works to keep her well. I reminded her that God made her healthy and keeps her healthy. We recognized together that Truth could push any error out of her experience, and quickly! She soaked every truth in like a dry sponge put to water.
After a couple of minutes, I could see a response in her face. Mom was patiently waiting for me to finish. I kissed her, gave her a big hug, and left the room confident that she was fine. Mom continued to read to her from Science and Health.
As I finished dinner in the kitchen, I rejoiced in knowing that she was spiritual and well as a child of God. A spiritual idea of God does not get sick or suffer. A spiritual idea of God is always healthy and well. My daughter was not susceptible to error influence, nor was she an unsuspecting or vulnerable mortal. She was immortal. Her spirituality was her immunity to illness, and since she was totally spiritual, not material, she could not suffer. I felt a great peace about her situation.
Ten minutes later, while I was setting the table, Jenna came bouncing out of her room into the kitchen and asked in her normal boisterous, full confident voice, “What’s for dinner?” I looked up a bit amazed, I must say, for she was a picture of health. I was not expecting her to eat dinner. But the ill Jenna I had seen in bed minutes previously was gone. She wanted to eat and then head off to chem lab at school. I quickly accepted the healing. We ate dinner, and all was fine.
Over the next few days, she started coughing. I didn’t pay much attention to it, at first, which was a mistake. But when I realized it was persistent and not yielding, I specifically addressed it with her one morning before she went to school. I told her to not accept the coughing as something to put up with or figure would go away in the future. It was error, and was not necessary. We decided together that it had no place in her experience as a healthy child of God and off to school she went. I never heard another cough.
As a parent, I’m so grateful for Christian Science. It gives us spiritual remedies we can put into practice instantly to help our children. And the side effects are so totally wholesome.
What a wonderful touching healing! Thank you for sharing.
Can you please elaborate a bit on what you mean when you wrote” After a couple of moments I could see a response in her face.”
I appreciate reading about your experiences as a dad and how involved you are in the lives of your kids, as opposed to the decades old media driven stereotype of dad as a kind of Lone Ranger figure.
Here’s an idea: perhaps you could do a blog entry about fatherhood. World thought seems to happily buy into the idea of absentee dads
( physically and/or mentally) as the norm and an expected societal experience, and blithely accepts the notion of single parent home as typical along with the alarming statistic of 49-51% of all first marriages ending in divorce. Not a pretty picture, especially when kids are involved…
What do you think?
What a wonderful demonstration! Unfortunately, my child had the same kind of problem but not the quick healing that I had prayed for.
Please explain why medicine and material remedies are not a gift from God. I know the typical answer is that because man is spiritual, treating materially is irrelevant, and because God knows no material man, he would not send a material remedy. I was thinking about this and then wondered, then why did Jesus come to earth? Jesus came in a form that humanity could see and understand, so it doesn’t seem so inconceivable that God would send relief from suffering in a form that people can see and understand.
Also, when there are medical advances in healing disease, do you not see that as progress, or as good coming to man?
To above wondering about medicine as being a gift of God…
A difference between the effect that medicine has on a person, and spiritual healing has on a person, is all in thought.
Spiritual healing regenerates the human mind and improves it, bringing it closer to the Mind of Christ, in which true spiritual existence is more nearly discerned and experienced.
Medicine, if it has an effect, has only a temporal effect, and it does not increase faith in God, in Spirit. It’s use increases faith in medicine, in matter. The effect in one’s life of increasing reliance on medicine is to take thought away from Spirit, away from spiritual consciousness, and more and more into material ways of thinking. The short term effect may be physical relief, but the long term effect is one of increasing one’s faith in matter, which is counter-productive to spiritual growth and understanding Spirit as all in All–a requirement for heavenly consciousness. This is why Jesus Christ did not use medicine. He wanted people to move their faith to Spirit, not into matter.
Per seeing a change in my daughter’s face…
I was not looking for a change, per say, but felt a change as I spoke the truth and the thought surrounding her settled down and became calm. As I think about your question, the change I saw could have actually been the change I felt within myself as I felt assured she was okay in Truth. I probably saw outwardly what I started to feel inwardly.
On writing about fatherhood…yes that is an area that needs much attention! I’ll think on that…
I recall Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, had an affirmation that goes: “I am a spiritual being, living in a spiritual universe, governed by spiritual laws.”
Had to chuckle when I read the anonymous comment above that reads, in part, “…because man is spiritual, treating materially is irrelevant…” Never heard nor thought of this viewpoint before. It makes good sense!
I still don’t understand what you wrote about seeing a change in your daughter’s face. Also, ” and the thought surrounding her settled down and became calm.”
What do you mean?
Thanks for clarifying.