Don't Wait: Pray Now

I WAS standing on the bottom rung of the ladder to our seven-year-old's loft bed. We were going to read together before her bedtime. As I looked up, I saw her foot sticking out over the top of the ladder. On the bottom of her big toe were about twenty warts! As a student of Christian Science, I have learned to turn to God for help. I realized that I didn't have to wait until some more convenient time to pray for healing either. I could turn to God in prayer right at that moment, while I was standing on t he ladder! So I did. I silently asked God to tell me what He knew to be true about our daughter.

God is Love; His tender presence is everywhere and is all- powerful. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells us in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures that God is ``the great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." I knew that because God is ever-present Love, and because He is all-knowing Mind, He would tell me the truth about our da ughter in a way that I could understand and appreciate. God communicates His thoughts directly to us, and we can hear Him when we are listening with all our heart.

John's Gospel tells us Christ Jesus assured his followers: ``Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The truth is the spiritual fact of things. It is life as God knows it and maintains it. And this truth heals because, as a light shining in darkness displaces the darkness, so truth naturally eliminates anything that is untrue. It brings to light spiritual reality.

As I stood on the ladder, this is the thought that came to me: ``The substance of this child is Spirit, not matter, and in Spirit is no place for error to lodge or attach itself." I loved this idea! God was telling me that His child--which we all are--was not a matter-based being, but was the idea of Spirit, held safe and perfect as His likeness. And because the substance of our daughter was entirely spiritual, no error or imperfection could attach itself to her. I felt so glad about this thought from Go d, so relieved that I really understood and believed it! I acknowledged it as true for our daughter, and then I climbed on up to read with her.

The next night as I climbed up the ladder, the same foot was sticking out. But this time there were only five warts! Once again I turned to God and prayed, knowing that this child was the substance of Spirit and that there was no place in spiritual substance for error of any kind to lodge. I felt the fresh conviction and reality of truth and climbed up to read.

The third night, the little foot was sticking out the same as before, but with three warts. This time when I saw it, I was grateful for improvement. But I still declared silently and vehemently, ``Twenty warts or three warts, the substance of this child is still Spirit, not matter, and in Spirit is no place for error to lodge or attach itself--no place!" I was completely convinced that the warts had nothing to do with this child as the perfect image of God. They were not any part of her. Period! I climbe d on up to read once again.

The next night when I went up to be with her, our daughter's foot was completely perfect. Not a single wart was anywhere. I had turned to God, asked Him for the facts about His child, listened for His answer. And we had been provided with spiritual truth and had witnessed healing based on the understanding of the truth.

We don't have to wait for the perfect time to pray. We can pray anywhere, anytime--even on the rungs of a ladder--because God and His truth are always with us everywhere we are.

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