Archive for October, 2010
Only 10% valid? Merits of medical research challenged by its internal critics
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post: Today, we have a thought provoking piece by Tony Lobl, our UK colleague and friend. Please enjoy and comment. –
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“Are 90% of all medical studies wrong — including nearly half of those claimed to be the most reliable? That’s the provocative claim made by researcher John Ioannidis, profiled in this month’s issue of The Atlantic.” Thus spake Time magazine, in reviewing an article called “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science“ published in The Atlantic, written by contributor David Freedman.
The Atlantic article highlights the work of Dr. John Ioannidis – a professor at Stanford School of Medicine - who, it says,”has spent his career challenging his peers by exposing their bad science.” He has proved that much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is “misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong”. Included in the article is the following:
‘This array [of the "astonishing" range of errors being committed] suggested a bigger, underlying dysfunction, and Ioannidis thought he knew what it was. “The studies were biased,” he says. “Sometimes they were overtly biased. Sometimes it was difficult to see the bias, but it was there.” Researchers headed into their studies wanting certain results—and, lo and behold, they were getting them. We think of the scientific process as being objective, rigorous, and even ruthless in separating out what is true from what we merely wish to be true, but in fact it’s easy to manipulate results, even unintentionally or unconsciously. “At every step in the process, there is room to distort results, a way to make a stronger claim or to select what is going to be concluded,” says Ioannidis. “There is an intellectual conflict of interest that pressures researchers to find whatever it is that is most likely to get them funded.”’
One can only gratefully respect such a scientist for his integrity in open-mindedly entertaining an awareness of the issues that he raises, and for his courage in speaking out about them. Highlighting unconscious and even conscious bias in medical research is clearly needed to improve the calibre of the work done, and to improve the products and services offered to those who choose Western medicine as their healthcare approach.
As a Christian Scientist who has spent the past thirty years choosing instead a purely spiritual approach to healthcare and healing, I would take this one step further. I would suggest there is a profounder bias that will eventually surface due to this kind of honest self-examination, and that is the underlying presumption of materially measurable cause and effect. While the placebo effect has highlighted the fact that there are mental factors inherent in treatment outcomes, the scientific method has not yet pinpointed the broader impact that thought has on every individual case. Does the individual thought of the patient, the thought of the carers, and general public thought about the expected coure of a disease play a part in every experience of illness? And, if so, could these mental factors play a much larger part in assessing the outcome of every experiment conducted in the name of medical research?
And, if so, is there access through spiritual means such as prayer to a source of thoughts which affords positive mental and physical health outcomes independent of purely matter-based starting points and conclusions?
Time will tell – and then maybe even Time magazine will tell! – whether an assumption of materiality is clouding scientific research into the cause and cure of disease, and whether there is a scientific spirituality that can throw light on to how to bring better thoughts to bear on the healing process.
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Read other posts by Tony Lobl here
Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: When a child is sick? – Spiritual treatment & healing!
A Nation Reflects on God
Posted by: | CommentsGuest Blog: Responding to the recent PBS series, “God In America,” my colleague, Russ Gerber, had this to offer…
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The producers of PBS’s “God in America” series are thinking big. Not only have they put together a six-part documentary series on religious life in America, but on their website they’ve given everyone an opportunity to share their own meaningful spiritual experiences. They call it “Faithbook.”
It’s a chance online to talk about your faith, your faith history, how you practice your faith, or how difficult it is to practice your faith. When was the last time the public square encouraged that kind of deep discussion?
I think the visibility and voice of those who have spiritual experiences to share are of enormous value to society. They capture a vivid picture of the diversity of lives and thinking that is often overlooked by mainstream media. These experiences are a reminder that what we see on the surface doesn’t capture the whole story—maybe not even the true story—of what matters most in our lives.
While filling out my Faithbook page I remembered a day about thirty years ago that changed the course of my life.
I glanced over at my daughter and saw her delight as she swam with her friends, meanwhile here I was feeling as far from that kind of happiness as anyone could be.
My heart cried out for some kind of answer and a moment later I heard what I’ve described to friends as a “voice.” It had a gentle-sounding tone and yet it came across as authoritative. It was this simple message: “Commit thy way unto me.”
Now, I can’t explain to anyone why the dated language (why not “your” instead of “thy”?), or why there weren’t a few more helpful details in the message such as “go visit so-and-so about a job” or “check your bank account for a surprise deposit.” That would have been pretty cool.
I heard only those few words, and I knew I hadn’t conjured them up myself. Still, the message was persuasive because of the unmistakable feeling that accompanied it. I felt comfort and what I would describe as irrefutable wisdom, all of which was conveyed to me as tenderly as any message could be. No thunderous command, no demeaning judgment. And yet for someone who wasn’t really a religious person it struck me with conviction that the source of this message was divine, not human.
Long story short, I opted in. I committed to taking a deep-dive into the teachings of Christian Science, which was a religion that explained to my satisfaction the source of what I had experienced back then, and what, in the intervening years, continues to be a profound influence for good in my life, including the healing of bodily ailments. I learned more about the God whom I found to be supremely wise and good, and who expects me to live up to everything divinity is, and is doing, for us all. Admittedly I don’t always measure up to that high standard, but I’m committed to giving it my best shot.
Oh yes—our house never did go into foreclosure. Instead, my clientele soon expanded to include the publisher of The Christian Science Monitor. Go figure.
So, thanks PBS for giving us all an opportunity to share our spiritual experiences. I hope everyone takes some time to tell theirs. I think of it as not just one story of many, but as many stories of One.
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Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: When a child is sick? – Spiritual treatment & healing!
The importance of viewing “Christian” and “Science” together
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Wonderful guest post for you today from Bill Scott, our good friend in Washington. It’s a well crafted piece on The importance of viewing “Christian” and “Science” together.
He may not be from Texas, but Bill can still think and write. So, enjoy.
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Christian Science. Putting these two words together is difficult for some to accept. After all, religion and science are considered two separate and distinct fields of study, and many feel there exists a significant gulf between them.
This and other questions related to Christian Science were often discussed when I shared a small business with a close friend. He felt these two immense and seemingly unrelated words were never meant to go together. We had many deep conversations on the subject.
I explained that the science behind Christian Science was best illustrated through the practical proof of spiritual healing. I pointed out that Jesus healed countless individuals using prayer alone, and that he taught and encouraged others to do the same. By doing so, Jesus signified that these actions were not miracles, but the application of spiritual principles or laws. I told my friend that Christian Science was the rediscovery of Jesus’ healing method. And like the laws of gravity, aerodynamics or mathematics, it was and is available for anyone to learn, practice and prove for themselves. However, this Christianly scientific method is only successful when coupled with the Christian qualities as taught by Jesus–such as humility, tenderness and love. In this way, the healing of disease and illness of all kinds have been accomplished.
This explanation made little impression on my friend. He didn’t believe in God and the idea of Christian character seemed to have nothing to do with science. To him, only the scientific method could determine if something was scientifically authentic.
A partial definition of “the scientific method” from Wikipedia states:
“… To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation the formulation and testing of hypotheses.”
I reiterated to my friend that the science behind prayer-based healing, as taught in Christian Science, can best be proven by individual demonstration. I shared examples in my own life and invited him to visit a Christian Science Reading Room and read a few of the corroborated accounts of healing on record (many of them medically diagnosed).
My friend always respected my devotion, but responded that, to him, Christian Scientists testifying to the benefits attributed to their faith would always be biased and therefore suspect. It didn’t seem to matter to him that these testimonies were an unparalleled historical record of over 80,000 accounts from around the world, testifying to the efficacy of a healing system that has continued for over 125 years. My friend thought that unless he could see evidence of a third party to test the science, he did not feel impelled to investigate it further. And there we often left it.
So last summer, I thought of my friend and business partner when I found a blog by an ordained interfaith minister named Rev. Mary Jo Leaper. Rev. Leaper’s blog post of June 9, 2010 is titled, “A Christian Science Healing.” In it, she shares how she purchased the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. She read it from cover to cover and even memorized a number of passages. Later, she found herself overhearing of someone’s physical problem and felt impelled to pray for this person as she had learned from the textbook. The next day, she found that the person was completely healed. Rev. Leaper attributes the healing to the scientific prayer she learned and applied from Science and Health. She is not a Christian Scientist, but found that she could apply what she learned in Christian Science to heal others.
Questioning the validity of prayer-based healing is nothing new. Jesus faced it in his time, as did Eddy in the nineteenth century. Going back to my friend–one thing we would likely agree on is that results matter. I’m reminded of the time when Jesus healed the man who had been born blind. The Pharisees refused to accept that the healing was attributed to Jesus and urged the man to deny the efficacy of Jesus’ prayer. The man responded,
“I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.” (John 9: 25, The Message)
You can find all of Bill Scott’s fine posts at his blog site (here).
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Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: 5 Simple things to make you a better healer
Captain Jack – saving lives
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Guest post. Thought you’d like to read this post from Dr. Donald Ingwerson (left), our friend in Southern California. (Don’s site)
I’ve seen prayer save lives. I’ve even seen prayer heal a passenger during a flight from Corpus Christi to Houston. I’ll bet my bottom dollar that Captain Jack was praying while flying flight 4951 the other day. I’ll let you be the judge. Enjoy the post. —
I mentioned in my first blog “Man and the Concept of Limitation” of my ongoing interest in the concept of the unlimited potential of individuals from the very young to the more mature.
A recent news release reinforced that idea for me. It was reported that pilot Captain Jack Conroyd safely landed a regional jet with the landing gear only partially down. Conroyd is a Christian Scientist. His Christian Science church friends in Winter Park, Florida, indicated that Captain Jack (as he is nicknamed there) rarely misses a church service unless he has been assigned to fly. Obviously, even when in the pilot’s seat, he maintains his understanding of his own spirituality.
From ABC news “He is credited with saving the lives of more than 60 people during a heart-stopping emergency landing at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport when the plane’s landing gear failed to work properly. Meet America’s newest hero — Capt. Jack Conroyd.
Conroyd and his co-pilot Larkin Newby were identified as the pilots of the Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight 4951 who executed an emergency crash landing on a JFK runway Saturday night, a senior Port Authority told ABC News.
None of the 64 passengers on board the CRJ 900 twin-engine jet were injured.
Conroyd declined to discuss his heroics when reached by ABC News today, and indicated any comments would have to wait until an investigation of what happened is concluded.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines is “extremely proud of the crew’s actions,” ASA spokesman Jerek Deem said.
The spokesman said its own internal investigation team was working with the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Conroyd is in line to become the most celebrated pilot since Capt. Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger landed his crippled jetliner on the Hudson River in January 2009.” —
You can see all of Don’s posts here.
Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: When a child is sick? – Spiritual treatment & healing!
Hammy & letting God inspire
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Today, we have a guest post penned by Martha Sarvis. Martha will be a guest poster for us quite often. That’s a good thing. You’ll enjoy her work. A little more about Martha below, but first, Hammy & letting God inspire.
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I was surprised recently when a friend said that she thought you had to be very scholarly to be a Christian Scientist. You see, I don’t think of myself as a scholar. I’m familiar with many Bible citations because the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson is filled with them and well I just love reading my Bible. It’s loving message has become a part of my life. But to learn more about Christian Science doesn’t require any prior academic ability. It’s a meek willingness to let God inspire your life.
Sometimes I find inspiration in the strangest places. Hammy, the hyperactive squirrel from the DreamWorks movie “Over the Hedge“, got me to thinking recently. In one scene he’s on a slick surface and trying to escape but he’s getting nowhere. His friend calls out, “more pad, less claw”. Hammy makes the change and zooms away.
It occurred to me that our relationship to God isn’t dependent on our “clawing” our way to Him through scholarly attainments. It’s loving Him with all our being. More of a “pad” approach.
What inspires you?
Martha grew up in San Antonio. So, she’s a Texan. She received a BBA in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M. She married Corky in 1987 and started working for USAA in 1989 as a computer programmer/analyst. While working at USAA she received an MBA from Our Lady of the Lake. In 2004, Martha & Corky moved to Boerne. She’s now a full time mom and part time Christian Science practitioner.
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Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: 5 Simple things to make you a better healer
“You can’t rewrite the Lord’s Prayer!”
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Last week, I visited with Doug Schurtz, Morning Assignment Editor, at Houston’s KTRK-TV ABC Channel 13. I found Doug to be a really genuine guy and a great listener. He showed me the station’s newly refurbished studios and I truly enjoyed our meeting.
While touring the studios and talking with Doug about responsible spiritual care that Christian Science has provided for the past 120 years, I suddenly thought about another studio I was in about 5 years ago.
The studio that suddenly came to mind was a radio studio at Times Square in New York City. I had been lecturing in New York and Connecticut, and was scheduled to be interviewed on the Joey Renolds Show. Joey’s show starts at midnight and runs until 5 in the morning. It airs live across the United States. That night, I stepped into the studio at 2 AM.
While on the air, Joey asked the topic of my lecture. I told him I had been speaking about joy and how the healing ideas in the spiritual guidebook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, had helped me. He responded back, “Mary Baker Eddy, didn’t she rewrite the Lord’s Prayer?” Then we went to a commercial. During the commercial, Joey said, “I was in Los Angeles a couple years ago, and had a bad back problem. I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. I was healed immediately.”
When we came back on the air, a Detroit caller to the program yelled, “You can’t rewrite the Lord’s Prayer!” Of course, the caller was right in one sense, no one should tinker with the original meaning of the message itself. We wouldn’t want the divine truth behind the words altered. It has healed people for the past two thousand years. Although our present English version of the prayer has healed many, yet, Jesus divine statement was not delivered in English, and has been translated often.
Here is the King James Version of the Lord’s Prayer along with Eddy’s spiritual sense of it as found in Science and Health:
Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is
omnipotent, supreme.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth
us from sin, disease, and death.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, forever.
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over
all, and All.
How has the Lord’s Prayer helped you? Please comment.
Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: 5 Simple things to make you a better healer
Mother’s Evening Prayer
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This poem touches me. It makes me hit the pause button on fears and aches. In this quiet and receptive moment, I feel the healing presence of God. I feel His “peace and joy and power.” I learn again how I can rely on His spiritual laws to guide and heal me just as much – or more so – than we all rely on the laws of gravity and mathematics throughout our day.
Enjoy the poem. As well, be sure and listen to the first verse beautifully sung by The Vocal Majority.
Mother’s Evening Prayer
By Mary Baker Eddy
O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;
O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight!
Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.
Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.
O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.
Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;
In that sweet secret of the narrow way,
Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:
“Lo, I am with you alway,” — watch and pray.
No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;
No night drops down upon the troubled breast,
When heaven’s aftersmile earth’s tear-drops gain,
And mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.
The Vocal Majority singing the first verse: 04 Oh, Gentle Presence
Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: 5 Simple things to make you a better healer
The Giants Clinch, Lesson Learned
Posted by: | CommentsToday, we’ve got a guest post by our friend from Northern California, Eric Nelson. Even if baseball isn’t your thing, I think you’ll still enjoy Eric’s piece.
For Texas baseball fans, this season has been bittersweet. Rangers are in the playoffs. Astros are rebuilding. However, for the next few quick minutes, let’s switch time zones, states, and team allegiances so we 
can enjoy (or better said, read about) Eric’s painful loss.
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The Giants Clinch, Lesson Learned
Someday I’ll be able to tell my kids and grandkids I was there.
I was there the day the Giants clinched the National League West, squeezing out a 3-0 win over the San Diego Padres on the very last day of the season. I was there when Jonathan Sanchez drilled a Matt Latos fastball deep into the alley for a standup triple. I was there when Buster Posey punched the first pitch of the 8th inning into the left field bleachers. I was there when Brian Wilson blew a 95 mph heater past Will Venable to clinch the deal. I was there when the Giants won.
Problem is, I’m a Padres fan.
It’s not that I’m not happy for all those 42,000+ Giants fans I was sitting with. I’m not confused or upset about all the yelling and screaming and fist-pumping. It’s just not the outcome I was hoping for. I understand where they’re coming from and would expect the same of them if they were in my place.
Now, this may sound like a stretch, but in a sort of funny way what I saw on Sunday made me think about my choice of health care. You see, I’m a Christian Scientist, and for the last umpteen years I’ve relied on my growing understanding of God alone for my health and general well being.
It may not be what most other people would choose, but that’s no reason for them to be confused or upset. I would expect them to respect where I’m coming from just as I respect where they’re coming from and what they choose to rely on for their health.
Giants and Padres fans alike were hoping for the same thing on Sunday; a win for their team and the promise of even greater glory in the post-season. In this same vein, those who turn to prayer for healing and those who rely on medical and other means of treatment have the same goal in mind; health, happiness, wholeness.
I doubt I’ll ever become a Giants fan. And its okay if none of those folks I sat with on Sunday start rooting for the Padres. But at least we can all enjoy a good game and maybe even learn a few things from each other. To me that’s all that really matters.
Play ball!
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Read more of Eric’s work (here).
Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: When a child is sick? – Spiritual treatment & healing!
“Love inspires, illuminates, designates and leads the way” – why, honey, how romantic!
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post warning! Below is a piece by our friend in the UK. I thought we all needed a dose of love today and Tony Lobl has supplied it. Enjoy the read.
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Google Alerts is a helpful web tool if you want to track the way the broad public think about a particular subject of interest to you. Like most internet-connected males, one of my Google Alerts is for me! More importantly, as someone whose day job is to represent Christian Science in the media, one of my Google Alerts tracks articles, comments, etc. about Mary Baker Eddy.
Among many other things, the wise words of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science frequently appear on quotation sites or in people’s blogs. Nevertheless, it took me a little by surprise to see a familiar quote of hers in a blog titled Favorite Meaningful Messages under a heading of Romantic One Liners. ”Love inspires, illuminates, designates and leads the way” is one line and it is a meaningful message. But is it romantic?!
I certainly can’t recall wooing my wife Jenny while we were courting, or wowing her in our 21 years of marriage since, by looking lovingly into her eyes and whispering “Well, honey, love inspires, illuminates, designates and leads the way”. The idea behind these words, though, has been invaluable to both of us in our marriage.
Mary Baker Eddy was certainly not averse to romantic love. One of her more practical and compassionate “one liners” is “Husbands, hear this and remember how slight a word or deed may renew the old trysting-times.” The main thrust of her life-work and her writings, though, is the kind of love which romantic love, at its best, can hint at, but which goes far broader and deeper: the understanding and expression of God’s love that is powerful enough to heal. ”The way” that most engaged her thought was “the way” in which one could faithfully follow the Way-shower, Christ Jesus. And the line preceding the quoted phrase about love inspiring, illuminating, and designating the way is “Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching”.
Following years of, as she put it, God “graciously preparing” her – and after a dramatic healing of her own in 1866 propelled her deeper than ever into Bible research as to the “how” of the healings of Jesus and the early disciples – Mary Baker Eddy’s ensuing career was certainly no path strewn with (romantic) roses. She encountered hostility, prejudice, slander, disbelief and betrayal along the pathway of progress that was illuminated and designated for her as she prayed. Yet she never wavered in following it, motivated by her deep desire to “reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing” and to share as widely as possible the freedom that can bring. She did this by healing and teaching others and by publishing her ideas in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
It was out of this life that she was able to say, with the authority of experience, that divine Love, God “inspires, illuminates, designates and leads the way”.
Many people today - like these - can testify to the benefits still being brought about by Mary Baker Eddy’s devotion to proving and articulating, in systematic language, the spiritual perception of the Bible’s meaning that enables lives to be transformed for the better. The reconciliation of reason and revelation she discerned through her own scriptural study and practical healing proofs has brought to light, and captured for posterity, how the love of divine Love, God, is the best guide for the way forward to be inspired, illumined, designated and wisely lead in all aspects of human life…
Including in relationships…
Including in romantic relationships…
Hmm. Maybe the author of Favorite Meaningful Messages has a point after all! And many thanks to the blog for including this thought-provoking quote.
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You can find all of Tony Lobl’s splendid posts here.
Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: 5 Simple things to make you a better healer
Healthcare: personal responsibility / better choices
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“Healthcare is our own personal responsibility” – “Better educated people make better healthcare choices.”
These two statements jumped out at me last Thursday, during the 2010 Legislative Breakfast & Panel Discussion hosted by Houston’s Northwest Assistance Ministries. There was quite a line-up on the panel: Mayor Annise Parker, City Councilman Brad Bradford, State Rep. Ellen Cohen, State Rep. Gary Elkins, State Rep. Debbie Riddle, and many others. The topics of the discussion included: Children’s Healthcare, Hunger/SNAP, Human Trafficking, and Pay Day Lending. The breakfast was good too!
The previous two statements I refer to were made by Rep. Riddle. They got me thinking, thinking on a broader stroke than perhaps what Riddle had in mind.
“Healthcare is our own personal responsibility”
For me, as a Christian Scientist and one who sees responsible spiritual healing taking place on a daily basis, I agree, healthcare is our own personal responsibility. We cannot forget about our health until there is a physical problem and then scramble for a solution. There are wise choices and proactive steps that are required to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
The many people in the Houston area as well as the rest of Texas relying on the Bible-based spiritual method of healing called Christian Science, are responsible for taking care of themselves and their families. They should be consistent with preventative prayerful treatment which maintains physical and mental health. More and more, people are recognizing that spirituality and a prayerful program not only helps keep them healthy, it heals them as well. (examples here)
“Better educated people make better healthcare choices”
I agree, better educated people do make better healthcare choices. The more we learn of our spiritual natures the more we will find that spirituality has a direct and profound impact on lives. Since I see spiritual care heal on a consistent basis, prayer is always my first choice when I begin to feel ill. Spiritual healing not only takes care of me physically, it brings a mental/spiritual transformation that I would not want to miss out on. Learning more about spirituality and how prayer helps and heals should be a high priority for all Texans.
Recently, Dr. Larry Dossey, former Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital, stated, “A survey of American family physicians found that 99 percent are convinced that spiritual beliefs can heal, and 75 percent believe that prayers of others can help a patient recover. The Joint Commission, which accredits clinics and hospitals in the United States, requires every institution to have a method in place to assess the spiritual concerns of every incoming patient. The Association of American Medical Colleges requires that every graduating physician be able to take a spiritual history from a patient, demonstrate that he or she understands how spirituality can be used to deliver compassionate care to those in need, and demonstrate a knowledge of the research on the role of spirituality in health. A recent survey of over 4,000 nurses found that 80 percent felt that spirituality should be covered in nurse education as a core aspect of nursing.”
Of course, Rep. Riddle’s statement that better education leads to better choices was about educating the public to the wisdom of eating more fruits and vegetables and less fatty and sugar laden foods. This is an intelligent thing to do. Yet, I feel that spirituality cannot be ignored in this area. I’ve found that the more I pray, the more I act in responsible and wise ways. One byproduct of my continued spiritual growth is that I naturally eat healthier foods and eat them in balanced portions. That’s what spirituality does. It brings discipline and order to lives. When we recognize that God has everything to do with health and harmony, we will want to learn even more about the spiritual nature of things.
Again, spiritual education helps people make better healthcare choices. Spirituality causes wise and loving thoughts and actions. If not, it is not true spiritual sense/spirituality because it is not based on God, the supreme Spirit.
Has spirituality helped you
How has your growing spiritual understanding healed you? Has spirituality helped with a friend or family member? I would love to hear about it. Please comment.
Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: When a child is sick? – Spiritual treatment & healing!
