Learning to be a Good Patient

I remember growing up and learning the simple truth, “there is no spot where God is not.” As I grew older, allowing the world’s beliefs to become my thoughts and not challenging them through an understanding of God, my trust in this simple truth weakened, as I lacked the correct understanding of this pure Science to prove it. It took me years of attending Roundtables, Bible Studies, and church services, as well as reading the writings of the early workers, for me to break down the walls of past learning and old habits.

I had to learn what it meant to be a good patient and student before I could practice this Science of Being correctly. One of the first things I remember reading was an article titled “What Makes a Good Patient” by Doris White Evans. Through this article and my own experience applying the precepts taught here, I can look back with gratitude at how much this has changed my life.

Mrs. Evans wrote, “A good patient is one who seeks to understand God,” and learns to trust Him. Also, one who “is willing to drop a sense of selfhood apart from God” and is “willing to release the past.” I've also learned that a good patient is one who learns the necessity of doing your own work rather

than relying on another to fix things for you, as I once believed was the purpose of a practitioner. One who is honest with themselves and their practitioner, therefore is honest with others. One who is truly grateful, no matter what! One who drops pride and, instead, practices humility. I learned there are many forms of pride, one was thinking I knew a lot about Christian Science practice because I could recite lines from Science and Health. One who is willing to discipline daily life to focus on things of God and willing to part with whatever would stop progress, then go forward doing work for God.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it illustrates the redeeming process of Christian Science and the

strengthening that comes from the Lord.

I am grateful for all I've learned so far in this step-by-step process, and for the regular practitioner support and instruction. These are simple, but not always easy, principles to practice, and they are free for all to adopt.

I am grateful to our gracious God, for Christ Jesus' precepts, for Mary Baker Eddy, for the decades she untiringly dedicated to God to bring forth this Science of the Christ, and this church that strives to follow their examples and teachings.