A Christian Science perspective by Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche
Recognizing that all of us reflect divine Love’s care can contribute to a secure and healthy environment for our children.
—At the time our daughter started the fourth grade in a new school, I was traveling extensively for work….Although she had a hands-on dad who happily covered all the bases, I bore much guilt, and this led to a combination of hovering over her when I was home and worrying when I was away. Seeking to eliminate the guilt and its unhealthy effects, I began to consider more deeply my role as her mother.
I thought of some of the things I’d learned through my study of Christian Science – for instance, that we are all created by God, each reflecting the nature and qualities of our divine source. From this I understood that we reflect God, divine Love, in unlimited ways. God is the infinite, illimitable Mother of us all – not as a person, but as the universal presence of Love. God’s mothering care is always with us to guide, protect, cheer, cherish, uplift, and support.
As I considered God as the true, spiritual Mother of each of us, I recognized that this was true for my daughter, too. Of course I had a responsibility to care for her. But I saw that mothering isn’t limited to one person’s physical presence. We each have an unbreakable relation to our divine Mother, who cares for us at all times and in all the ways necessary for us to thrive. My role as my daughter’s mom could include being a witness to her spiritual nature as a child of God. This idea brought me peace and light, because I knew I could be that spiritual witness at any time and in any place.
This article was published in The Christian Science Monitor, read it here
The members of the Christian Science Church in Canberra are sponsoring a free community lecture by Beth Packer titled:
Demystifying Spiritual Healing
Date: Sunday October 15, 2017
Time: 2.00 – 3.00 pm
Venue: The Reception Room of the Legislative Assembly Building on London Circuit, Canberra City
Beth grew up in a Christian Science family where healing was a normal part of life. As she witnessed her mother’s healing work in the family she came to have a deep wish to be able to help others in this way. Since 2005 Beth has devoted her life to being a full-time Christian Science healer. Now as a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship she has lectured around the world even in prisons in Africa and Asia.
Prior to 2005 she was an award-winning artist, a successful business woman, president of the local Chamber of Commerce and started a local newspaper.
Beth’s lecture is full of practical application and personal examples to demonstrate how spiritual healing is available to everyone. She will show how it is based on spiritual laws that have always existed and when applied can bring health, harmony and well-being. She says, “It was those years of putting into practice the truths that I’d grown up with, of healing through prayer the difficulties that can arise in family and public life, that really prepared me to be able to be of real use to those around me.”
If you are in Canberra on October 15, please join us.
I was around my friend’s house for a sleepover and suddenly felt very sick, so I ran into the bathroom. My friend knocked on the door and asked if she could get me anything. I asked her to get my cellphone. My mum always supported me to pray, whenever I had a difficulty, and encouraged me to talk to the Christian Science practitioner who had prayed for me before. So before calling my mum, I decided to call this practitioner. I knew it wasn’t right that my sleepover be wrecked. I took a stand and decided that this sickness was like a “sneaky snake” trying to make me believe something bad was true about me.
I rang the practitioner and she told me that I was at one with God, and God was my friend. A friend would never hurt me. So God could never let me be hurt. I hung up the phone, and sat there thinking about what she had said. I thought about how I was the “reflection of perfection,” which was something my mum always says.
Lauren is a 12 year old student who attends a Christian Science Sunday School. Read the full text of her article, My Sleepover – Saved!, where she describes how she calmly handled this incident and was quickly healed.
One time in a high school class, my teacher handed a student a coin. He told the student to squeeze the coin in his palm very tightly. The teacher then took a five dollar bill out of his pocket and tried to push it into this student’s firmly clenched fist. The teacher tried and tried—but it couldn’t happen. For the whole class, he made a salient point—teaching us in a memorable way that we can’t grasp new concepts while we’re holding tightly onto something else.
In prayer, as in fields of learning and knowledge, an openness and willingness to exchange
ignorance for truth always brings big benefits. Christ Jesus surely understood this and encouraged people, not just to be halfway receptive to progress, but to be as totally willing, receptive—and innocent—as little children are. “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” (Luke 18:17). That’s a very clear-cut way to put it!
Through communion with God we can experience the kind of transformation that is far beyond just a slight shift of direction. It can result in a radical conversion, a 180-degree change of thought, where all of existence is perceived from a different viewpoint—an entirely spiritual perspective.
With the trust and flexibility of a child, it’s rewarding to work with the quality of one’s thoughts, to be willing to release and let go of old concepts.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26).
In this article The good worth holding on to Mark Swinney explains further how with childlike receptivity, this change of thought brings surprising changes and healing. Find it here:
Read how this writer experienced healing of sudden and overwhelming symptoms of the flu, nose bleed and abdominal pain when she “focused on turning thought away from the body and to God.”
She shares: ” I have always loved Mary Baker Eddy’s description in her book Unity of Good of how Christ Jesus healed: “He demanded a change of consciousness and evidence, and effected this change through the higher laws of God” (p. 11). If Jesus could do this, then I could too. He said so.
I continued to demand a change of consciousness and evidence. The change in consciousness involved exchanging mortal thinking and belief in material laws for the divine laws of Spirit—ever present and all-powerful. The change in evidence was natural as I acknowledged the truth of perfect Mind and perfect reflection, “perfect God and perfect man” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 259). The so-called body must be governed by the Mind that governs man. It has no alternative.”
For the whole article by Bonita Rea, published in the July 10, 2017 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, click here:
Like the weather, some changes in life are unpredictable. They can be surprising, unforeseen – like suddenly being promoted at work, or becoming a parent for the first time. While a life-changing event can be exciting, others can be hard to cope with – especially if they’re unexpectedly thrust upon you. One way to deal with stormy life-changing events, is to change up one’s thinking, take positive action and embrace life changes! Doing so is good for your health.
EMBRACE CHANGE
When something you’ve loved is snatched away, feelings of hurt and disappointment can rain down upon you. You wonder how to carry on. When this happens, it’s time to use the umbrella of spiritual-type thinking to shelter your heart, restore peace of mind and move you forward to happiness and healing.
TIPS:
– Rather than standing under the grey clouds of disappointment and discouragement, lift up your thinking. Have courage. Embrace the change. Open your heart and welcome the good that lies ahead.
– Don’t begrudge the experience of a life change. Instead, focus on what you’ve gained, rather than what you’ve been forced to give up.
– Remember with thankfulness all that you’ve achieved, and what you can still do, and be.
– Realize that change doesn’t end things. Look past any unhappiness to the new opportunities that lie ahead. Change can be a stepping-stone to fresh prospects.
– Weather a stormy life-change. Be brave. Work on, and await the outcome. You can “steer safely amid the storm”. Mary Baker Eddy – Science and Health p.67
– Be encouraged, strengthened and reassured. You have within you the spiritual qualities of buoyancy, adaptability, and resilience. You will bounce back. You’ve been created to be mentally and emotionally strong. You can handle changed circumstances with grace and poise, and be triumphant.
– Let this poem comfort and help you embrace life changes. You’ll find it’s good for your health.
“In heavenly Love abiding, No change my heart shall fear; And safe is such confiding, For nothing changes here. The storm may roar without me, My heart may low be laid; But God [divine Love] is round about me, And can I be dismayed?
Green pastures are before me, Which yet I have not seen; Bright skies will soon be o’er me, Where darkest clouds have been. My hope I cannot measure, My path in life is free; My Father has my treasure, And He will walk with me.” Anna L. Waring – In heavenly love abiding.
ABOUT THE EXPERT:
Beverly Goldsmith writes on the connection between spirituality and health and is a Practitioner and Teacher of Christian Science healing. Twitter: @GoldsmithBev
Jesus taught us to walk over, not into or with, the currents of matter, or mortal mind. He demanded a change of consciousness and evidence, and effected this change through the higher laws of God.
The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.
When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or Truth, in its divine Principle.
Mary Baker Eddy (Unity of Good), (Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures)
I thought of some of the things I’d learned through my study of Christian Science – for instance, that we are all created by God, each reflecting the nature and qualities of our divine source. From this I understood that we reflect God, divine Love, in unlimited ways. God is the infinite, illimitable Mother of us all – not as a person, but as the universal presence of Love. God’s mothering care is always with us to guide, protect, cheer, cherish, uplift, and support.
Beth grew up in a Christian Science family where healing was a normal part of life. As she witnessed her mother’s healing work in the family she came to have a deep wish to be able to help others in this way. Since 2005 Beth has devoted her life to being a full-time Christian Science healer. Now as a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship she has lectured around the world even in prisons in Africa and Asia.
