Chapter 23
Health in the Home
1. I know of no better way to assure the family circle that there may be health in the home than to give a chapter out of my own experience.
2. It was many years ago that the Truth of Being was first brought to my notice. There seemed to be urgent need of relief if my stay on this planet was to be prolonged. It was at the solicitation of friends, already interested, that my husband and I attended the first Truth class taught in the city (Kansas City, Missouri). I must have been fully ready for the initial lesson, for it filled and satisfied all the empty, hungry longings of my soul and heart. Human language cannot express the vastness of the possibilities I saw unrolled before me—my possibilities. While the routine of life went on pretty much the same, a new world opened within me. The physical claims that had been considered so serious faded away before the dawning of this new consciousness, and I found that my body temple had been literally transformed through the renewing of my mind.
3. This is how I made what I call my discovery: I was thinking about life. Life is everywhere—in man and in worm. “Then why does not the life in the worm make a body like man’s?” I asked. Then I thought, “The worm has not as much sense as man.” Ah! intelligence, as well as life, is needed to make a body. Here is the key to my discovery. Life has to be guided by intelligence in making all forms. The same law works in my own body. Life is simply a form of energy, and has to be guided and directed in man’s body by his intelligence. How do we communicate intelligence? By thinking and talking, of course. Then it flashed upon me that I might talk to the life in every part of my body and have it do just what I wanted. I began to teach my body, and got marvelous results.
4. I told the life in my liver that it was not torpid or inert, but full of vigor and energy. I told the life in my stomach that it was not weak or inefficient, but energetic, strong, and intelligent. I told the life in my abdomen that it was no longer infested with ignorant ideas of disease, put there by myself and by doctors, but that it was all athrill with the sweet, pure, wholesome energy of God. I told my limbs that they were active and strong. I told my eyes that they did not see of themselves but that they expressed the sight of Spirit, and that they were drawing on an unlimited source. I told them that they were young eyes, clear, bright eyes, because the light of God shone right through them. I told my heart that the pure love of Jesus Christ flowed in and out through its beatings and that all the world felt its joyous pulsation.
5. I went to all the life centers of my body and spoke words of Truth to them—words of strength and power. I asked their forgiveness for the foolish, ignorant course that I had pursued in the past, when I condemned them and called them weak, inefficient, and diseased. I did not become discouraged at their being slow to wake up, but kept right on, both silently and aloud, declaring the words of Truth, until the organs responded. And neither did I forget to tell them that they were free, unlimited Spirit. I told them that they were no longer in bondage to the carnal mind; that they were not corruptible flesh, but centers of life and energy omnipresent.
6. Then I asked the Father to forgive me for taking His life into my organism and using it so meanly. I promised Him that I would never, never again retard the free flow of that life through my mind and my body by any false word or thought; that I would always bless it and encourage it with true thoughts and words in its wise work of building up my body temple; that I would use all diligence and wisdom in telling it just what I wanted it to do.
7. I also saw that I was using the life of the Father in thinking thoughts and speaking words, and t became very watchful as to what I thought and said.
8. I did not let any worried or anxious thoughts into my mind, and I stopped speaking gossipy, frivolous, petulant, angry words. I let a little prayergo up every hour that Jesus Christ would be with me and help me to think and speak only kind, loving, true words; and I am sure that He is with me, because I am so peaceful and happy now.
9. I want everybody to know about this beautiful, true law, and to use it. It is not a new discovery, but when you use it and get the fruits of health and harmony it will seem new to you and you will feel that it is your own discovery.
10. I knew that this wonderful Truth was for all alike, and I began to make application of it in my home. My first test was on our laundress. My attention was attracted by her continual coughing. Upon inquiry I found that she had bronchitis; a little cold had given it an acute form, and she was spitting blood. It occurred to me that here was an opportunity to apply my divine remedy, and I said, “Lucy, I have found a new way to gain health, and I am going to try it on you.” I turned within myself, and for the first time I gave what might be called a “treatment.” Imagine my joy when I found that the effect was instantaneous. I interviewed her three weeks afterward, and she informed me that she had never coughed from the time of that treatment, and that all her throat trouble had disappeared. After that she always looked to me to remedy her physical ailments.
11. My next application was for my children. I had always been a very anxious, solicitous mother to our two sons, the younger of whom was a mere baby. The elder was subject to tonsillitis. The tonsils were becoming chronically enlarged, and the doctor said that nothing but removal of them would meet the requirements of the case. We took great care to keep him out of dampness and to comply with all the so-called precautions against cold. Our younger boy had a tendency toward croup. There are few mothers who do not understand the terror of being awakened in the night by a hoarse signal that portends this dreaded ailment of childhood.
12. With my new understanding, I started to teach my little ones that there is nothing in all God’s world to fear. You may be sure that it was a delight to them to be released from the foolishness and ignorance that deny a child the freedom of contact with the elements. I shall never forget their shouts of joy as they waded around in the little pools made by the recent rainfalls, or when they got themselves well soaked by venturing out before the showers had ceased. One day, one of them, with a radiant face, greeted me on the porch, with a glad cry: “Oh, Mamma, aren’t you glad you got more sense and aren’t ’fraid any more to let us play and get our feet wet?” About this time, one of the neighbor boys from the window of his home looked out and saw our boys enjoying their new privileges, and wailed out to his mother, as she afterward told us, “Oh, Mamma, get Truth so we can wade and be happy like the Fillmore boys!”
13. I found that in gaining a victory over my fears I had lessened the liability of my children to take on old conditions. Of course, this was not all done at once. There were a good many times when there had to be a virtual battle with the habit of tonsillitis; but the attacks became lighter and farther apart, and gradually the tonsils became normal. As for the croupy boy, a few times the midnight alarm was sounded. But it was a trustful and not a fearful mother who came to the rescue; for well I knew that the battle was the Lord’s, and with a few strong statements of Truth the enemy was put to rout, and my precious boy went to slumberland, breathing softly.
14. As I have before stated, these changes were not accomplished all at once. There has been a gradual giving way of the old, established ideas, as we have steadfastly made room for the higher order of living. Do not think that it was always a pathway of roses, or that my head was continually above the clouds. We had many trying tests, reverse of fortune, apparent loss of friends, humiliations of many kinds, and what seemed to be serious illness in the family. But through it all we held unwaveringly to the principles that we caught sight of in that first lesson, and we have proved beyond a doubt that God is a help in every time of need.
15. Our third boy came to us a few years after we received the Truth. My husband was a businessman at that time, but he was interested in my demonstrations in the family. During this period I never allowed a doubt or a fear to come into my mind. I lived to the best of my understanding and took great pleasure in helping others overcome their difficulties when they came to me for assistance. It was a very happy time of my experience, and when the dear baby came, he smashed into smithereens the tradition that woman must bring forth in pain and sorrow. So far as my comfort was concerned, I might have been up and about immediately after his arrival, but I refrained for a few days.
16. I think that I am qualified to say that health and harmony are possible in any home where either one or both of the parents make a compact with the ever-present and eternal Goodness to give loyalty for protection. Just so far as we trust and rely upon the great, invisible Giver, just so far and so surely shall we receive from the only Source of supply.
17. Whatever may seem the lack or need in the home, the supply is at hand. God’s world is crammed full of health. If it is health you want, say so. God’s universe is overflowing with unfailing substance. Fill your heart and soul with it, and you will never know poverty any more. The great Answerer makes no mistake. We get just what we ask for.
