"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
Two years ago my daughter was unwell. At the time I was entertaining inappropriate feelings about someone I was working with. When first I’d started in the role, I’d attempted to keep a friendly but clear distant between myself and this colleague, as I detected an undercurrent. But I felt pressure from all around to relax my standards and to enjoy engaging in fairly innocuous office banter. I was flattered with the attention I occasionally received from this colleague, and was also dependent on his support in picking up the skills required to work effectively in my role.
Then, just when we had extra family on hand to support us in the home, our daughter became more obviously unwell. We made a hospital appointment, and eventually stayed there overnight. In the morning they decided she needed an emergency appendicectomy. She had surgery, and we were grateful that this work was done very well. But I realised that I really needed to purify my thoughts to be able to pray more effectively.
Being in hospital was an opportunity for our friends to see the remarkable difference Christian Science made in her quick recovery. One friend is a paediatric consultant at this hospital, and the other works in a lab, and they visited with us. She’d stopped taking the heavy painkillers with their side effects, and was happily playing games. She was allowed to leave hospital after four days - a day earlier than normal.
Back at work, there was still this difficult relationship to work out. I began to listen to the chapter on “Animal Magnetism unmasked” regularly on my way home from work. I still wanted to be friends with my colleague and tried to shine light into our discussions. However, the more I listened to God, the more I felt impelled to shine, and the more attention this brought me. I felt like I needed this friendship, and wanted to help lift this colleague out of a lifestyle choice that seemed to have no moral basis. I was unable to navigate this difficult territory alone. I was under pressure to become involved, and quitting wasn’t an option.
That’s when I finally spoke to a practitioner. She focussed on praying with the definition of “Man.” I started to do this. It wasn’t a quick healing, as I seemed to really like engaging with this colleague. During the weeks and months that followed I memorised those two pages from Science and Health while driving home from work, and quietly repeated them whenever I found a time to pray. I know that thinking “Man” in this way would be the best thing I could do for both myself and my colleague.
During this time I interviewed for a new role in another company, and was able to leave. However there were still lingering questions and concerns and feelings. With prayer and the support of practitioners, I am grateful that I can confirm that all the love I felt being poured on me was always form God, and that it is continuing to pour down now.