Allergy season: It was on the news; it was the discussion in the grocery line, the playground, the gym. I had never been bothered by it before, but one morning I woke up sneezing and sniffling. It went on all day and just seemed to get worse, and by the evening I was very uncomfortable. I remembered a friend’s concern earlier that day that I might have allergies.

That night, I prayed to see more of God’s constant care and goodness. The lovely hymn that begins, “In atmosphere of Love divine, / We live, and move, and breathe” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 144) came to mind, and I felt a little bit better. I was still having a challenge in the morning, however. Clearly the thought came: “You must pray about this and be specific.” So I did. I sat up in bed and started by recognizing that God, Father-Mother Love, is right there for each and every one of us, showering us with goodness and love. Every season holds its own wonderful purpose and place, and with no interruption. My simple prayer was, “How can a beautiful rose be anything but good!”

This thought was similar to something Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose, the smile of God, can produce suffering! The joy of its presence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever” (p. 175). I remembered that God made all, and it was and is good. So trees might represent strength, flowers might represent beauty—and I am untouched by matter, unharmed by these expressions of God’s qualities. This was very much a turning “things into thoughts” moment (see Science and Health, p. 123). I was healed that very instant. I could breathe with complete freedom, and that was the end of the trouble.

That experience played a role in another healing I had years later. I was clearing out an area of the yard that had overgrown, where weeds were tearing down a fence. The next day I woke up covered head to toe in itchy poison ivy. Right then and there I firmly declared that a suggestion of discomfort and irritation could not be real. I refused to even entertain the idea. I thought about a passage in Science and Health that reads: “If you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take” (p. 392).

I didn’t want my children to be afraid, and as I got dressed, I was grateful that my clothes covered any marks of this challenge. That day I kept praying, knowing that as God’s perfect idea, I was safe. Never marked, never changed, and not subject to the possibility of conditions “going downhill.” As my fear lessened, so did the physical evidence. For me, it showed that fear was what needed to be handled—not a physical itch, irritation, or swelling. I knew I needed to turn away from this false claim and instead claim my perfection.

One big thing that my prayers uncovered in my thinking was a bit of anger. As I looked back at cleaning up the yard the day before, I thought of how I’d been grateful for the beautiful day and the energy and strength to do the work, but upset that I didn’t have help from my husband, my son, or the yard service. “Why me?” I’d wondered. But then I’d thought; “Oh, please—I know that is not my thinking. Mortal mind would love to have me assign blame!”

I knew that as God’s child I was never out of His care, never discomforted. Father-Mother Love cares for each and every one of us at every moment, and I knew every time that I looked in the mirror or felt an itch I could smile joyfully and declare, “I am perfect, untouched by world thought, not irritated by fear or made to think that I can be damaged.”

After a day or so of praying along these lines (and much progress), as I sat quietly one morning, I remembered the wonderful healing I had had almost 20 years ago of allergy symptoms, and how simple my prayer was. Once again I reached out to those simple truths: God is all, and I am made in His image and likeness, perfect, upright, whole, and free. I am always in God’s constant care.

As I prayed with these thoughts, the pain and irritation completely stopped. Although the evidence of a rash was still there, I knew Love had healed me. I got dressed, and even put on short sleeves, knowing that all was well. By that afternoon, there was no evidence on my body of poison ivy.

What confidence both of these healings instilled in my thinking! We live freely, happily, and abundantly in the garden of goodness, safe and untouched. But we do need to recognize the unreality of creeping, dusty, weed-like thoughts coming from the media, friends, or even from what seems to be our own thought. We can fearlessly remove whatever thought needs to be removed simply by turning to God in prayer. In this heart of prayer is where we find healing.