Youth Page
Testimony by a Recent Sunday School Graduate
I once had a teacher help me define Christian Science. She defined it as self understanding. I have always loved that definition, because Christian Science has always helped me define who I am through my relationship with God.Growing up I have worked at defining who I am, but looking for my true identity has at times been difficult to find. For a long period of time, I identified myself as one thing, a lacrosse player. It was the one thing that I had always excelled at. I played all throughout high school, and I was known as the girl who played lacrosse. When my friends would introduce me they would always say "This is my friend Jessica, she's an incredible lacrosse player." It was as if it was attached to my name, a sort of title I had been given. When I graduated high school I got a lacrosse Scholarship to UC Davis, extending my lacrosse career. DivisionOne lacrosse is about the highest level you can get to in women's lacrosse. I played lacrosse at Davis for an entire season, and found that it was not as enjoyable as I had once dreamt. It was in fact a complete nightmare.
I knew that I was not going to be able to continue playing but the idea of giving up lacrosse seemed impossible because it was so much a part of my identity. When I found myself greatly confused I once again turned to Christian Science to greater understand my true identity. I collected all of my weekly Bible lessons and just started reading. I pulled upon all of the things I had learned in class and just started reciting passages thatI could remember. I was looking for anything to give me the strength to let go of lacrosse. I had been living under what seemed like a tyrannt's rule for an entire year and the first thing that I read when I opened the lesson was a quote from the Science and Health that simply read: "God made man Free." I laughed because I hadn't felt free in such a long time. There were two more passages that helped, one was something like "Thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great." The last was "Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost nor separated from its divine Principle." Both passages helped me to know that God made me great and that I could not lose anything by letting go of lacrosse.
Giving up lacrosse gave me the opportunity to get to know myself better, and I can say without a doubt that there is no one else I would rather be. I am a happier more confident person now then I was when I was Jessica the lacrosse player. Now I am just Jessica, and that is more than enough.
