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A beautiful healing of my mother of an enlarged heart brought our family into Christian Science. I grew up in Texas and I’ve always been a seeker for Truth. But during my university studies in graphic arts, I had a challenging physical problem that impelled me to continually read Science and Health.

To live the spiritual laws of God—divine Love—has been at the center of my life since I was a teenager. In my mid-20’s, on sabbatical from teaching and studying voice at a Conservatory, the message came in the middle of a lesson: “This isn’t it.

During college, a significant healing established me on a path to not only better know and understand God, but also to understand why that mattered . After being ill in bed for a week, I was healed overnight after a Christian Science practitioner (whom I’d asked to pray for me) spoke to me about the First Commandment in a way that challenged and revitalized my thinking.

Christian Science came into my family through my grandfather’s healing of a painful, incurable condition that threatened his livelihood. My siblings and I attended a Christian Science Sunday School in South Bend, Indiana, where I grew up. Active participation in Christian Science college organizations strengthened my spiritual understanding during undergraduate and graduate studies. Through healing experiences, I glimpsed the profound nature of Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery, and living Christian Science in daily affairs became a wonderful and natural way of life. Class instruction inspired a humble desire to really know God, and to be a healer—to help others.

 As a child, I was told that my great-great-great-grandmother became a Christian Science practitioner after experiencing healing while reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. However, I certainly remember my grandfather - also a Christian Science practitioner - whom I loved immensely and could always turn to for help.

What do counseling at-risk youth, running an emergency shelter, working as a wilderness ranger, teaching, and coordinating community outreach programs all have in common? These were jobs that led to my being in the full-time practice of Christian Science! Even as a child, lessons from the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's writings had encouraged and shown me ways to help others.  Christian Science gave me a love for Christ Jesus; it also enabled me to follow him by showing how prayer transforms experience by transforming thought.  Whether confronting hostile situations, battling a forest fire, or facing physical challenges, prayer enabled me to get beyond the appearance of things to the spiritual truth that brought healing solutions. As God’s love became more real to me and the mental nature of experience became more apparent, so did opportunities to heal.

Growing up in a loving Christian Science home in California, I witnessed and experienced many healings through prayer. Later, after unfruitful years of exploring different modes of thinking and behavior, I found myself drawn back to the truths, the universal spiritual laws I had learned as a child--the pure and deeply practical teachings of Christian Science.  I knew this was the Truth -- the unwavering nature of God's love, the supreme power and grace of God's goodness -- that I had found nowhere else.  I experienced healing and a deep yearning to understand more of God, which led me to take Primary class in 1983.

I always knew my career path was going to involve being of service to others, but had no idea it would be as a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science! My work in rural Appalachia during high school touched me so deeply I went on to get both an undergraduate and graduate degree in social work. I then worked for over 10 years as a psychotherapist in a variety of mental health settings.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, outlined a few brief tenets, rather than a creed or doctrinal beliefs, that summarize the essential points of Christian Science, all of which are rooted in the Bible.

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