A life renewed

Originally published in El Heraldo de la Ciencia Cristiana

For about five years my health had been very poor. My weight had dropped excessively, and my skin had taken on a very ugly tinge, which was caused by all the medication I was consuming. According to the doctor, the anxiety I felt had produced a cerebral arrhythmia. As a result, I was experiencing tremors that kept me bedridden. I checked into a hospital on three different occasions and even consulted naturopaths, without any results.

Being a religious person, I prayed, but I felt that my prayers weren’t answered. At one point I read in the Bible that God is Love, and I asked Him to make Himself known to me if He did indeed exist.

When my fourth child was born, she left the hospital with a renal infection that the doctors were not able to control. My depression increased at the sight of her suffering.

Around that time, someone spoke to me about a woman who was a Christian Science practitioner. I didn’t know anything about this Science, but I went to see her, filled with hope. She read to me the first chapter of Genesis from the Bible and commented that God’s creation was good and perfect, and that there was no place for evil, because God had not created it. Everything she told me impressed me very much. She loaned me five issues of El Heraldo de la Ciencia Cristiana [the Spanish Herald of Christian Science] and the Spanish translation of Science and Health.

Little by little, as I read, I gained courage. I’d been living in mental terror and had not even felt up to leaving the house. Nevertheless, I began to visit the practitioner and to attend Christian Science church services.

Very soon I found that what I was reading and hearing about were not mere words, but truths that bore fruit when I applied them. One proof occurred with my daughter, who in addition to the renal problem had very curved legs, which the doctors wanted to put in a cast. I was opposed to this and began praying for her. And soon after, her little legs were completely straight, and there was no need anymore for a cast.

On another occasion she had a very high fever, and I asked the Christian Science practitioner to pray for her right away. She came to see us and began to pray silently. The fever went down immediately. And that also proved to be the end of the renal virus. My daughter was completely healed.

For my part, I wanted to stop taking medication, but I was still afraid that the arrhythmia attacks would recur. I spoke to the practitioner about this, and she encouraged me to remember all the healings we’d already experienced and the beautiful concepts I was learning about God and myself as His spiritual reflection. That night I continued to pray, and I went to sleep without taking any pills. I did not experience any aftereffects. From then on I was able to drop more and more pills without any problems, until I finally was completely free from all the medication.

One of the passages in Science and Health that sustained me was “the scientific statement of being,” which says in part: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all” (Science and Health, p. 468). I understood that God was All, and that His allness not only included health but also harmony and peace.

After observing these healings, I was convinced that God is our Father and Mother, and I fully trusted God to govern our health and our home. At the time, my husband and I were having serious problems and growing further and further apart. I found such a refuge in Christian Science that, even though we were going through difficult times, I could be happy and calm, and see him as the child of God. Eventually, my husband and I decided to separate, but we now maintain a good friendship.

I’m very grateful to God because my life is a clear manifestation of the love that He has for all His creation.

Carmen Avilés de Toche | Lima, Peru