My father was an alcoholic and very domineering. To get me out of the chaotic atmosphere of our home, my mother would send me off to live with various nearby friends for days at a time. Lack of stability and discipline as I grew up contributed to my being an indifferent student at school.

After high school, I tried college but flunked a couple of courses because I lacked proper study skills. A promising scholarship to attend a ballet school didn’t turn out well either, as my father insisted that I quit the dance training after only a year.

Living at home with no prospects for the future, I was constantly reminded of these past failures. My life seemed narrow and hopeless, and I blamed my problems on others.

But in the midst of this bleakness, I recalled a dear Sunday School teacher pointing out Christ Jesus’ instruction, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). It came to me then that there was something I could do to help myself, and that was to change my thinking.

One day I walked past a table at home and picked up the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I felt drawn to it and began to read. It seemed as if the book had been written just for me, and I continued reading it from morning until night for many weeks. I had such a hunger to learn about God and my relation to Him that I read the textbook through three times consecutively.

I had always been painfully shy and withdrawn, but a new concept of man as God’s spiritual expression grew in my thought. I began to view myself and others with compassion and appreciation rather than condemnation. The understanding I was gaining of my true identity as God’s loved child gave me new confidence.

One day I got the idea to write to The Christian Science Monitor and request a job there. I was hired to work in the classified ads department, and my father agreed to let me go to Boston.

The night before I was to leave, a friend came to visit. She asked why I seemed so different, so at peace. I shared some of what I was learning in Christian Science, and I remember thinking, You will have to prove these things you are telling her.

Soon after she went home, I began finishing a hem in the sewing room. As I usually did, I placed several pins in my mouth to facilitate the sewing—but suddenly the pins went down my throat. I reached out to God for help, and instantly a Bible verse came to mind: “Be still, and know that I am God: … I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalms 46:10).

A sense of God’s presence and total love for me filled my entire being at that moment, completely eliminating all fear. I felt the greatest peace I had ever known; the serenity of it is inexpressible. After a while, I simply went to bed and did not mention to anyone what had happened. And I never felt any ill effects from swallowing the pins.

For me, this incident seemed like Moses’ experience with the burning bush. Both could be seen as examples of spiritual law overruling false, material law. Man is the spiritual reflection of God, embraced forever in His harmony.

After arriving in Boston, I kept reading Science and Health every possible moment. Coming to know God was the main focus of my life, and I continued growing spiritually.

Previously, my dental health had not been good. My dentist had remarked that if I got any more cavities he would have to pull the teeth, because there was no room in them for more fillings. And during my time in Boston, I began to have pain in a couple of my teeth.

I picked up Science and Health and opened it at random to read a question on page 468: “What is substance?” The answer begins: “Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: ‘The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ ” The passage goes on to say that man reflects the substance of Spirit.

This answer seemed so clear to me that I gave no further thought to the pain, and it stopped. Two weeks later the pain came back, and again I opened the book randomly to that same passage. I couldn’t help smiling to myself and told God, “OK, I got the message!”

The pain left again, and this time it didn’t come back. When I returned from Boston at the end of a year and visited the dentist, I didn’t have any new cavities. He told me, “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” In the years since then, my dental health has been much improved.

Later, I married, raised two children, and went on to have a long and productive career as a real estate agent. One of the keys to my professional success was what I learned about integrity through the study of Christian Science.

I’m deeply grateful for the Bible, for the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and for the Christian Science periodicals. Blessings and healings continue to flow from my study of the Science of the Christ. And church membership has enriched my life immeasurably.