I wanted to share something that has helped me in stressful moments of life that I’ve learned in the last couple of years…

Give God a minute :).

This is something I repeat to myself quite often when I’ve prayed for something and am waiting for the answer.

My Experience

As I walked the journey of dementia with my mom, I found myself in seemingly emergency situations, one after another.

• She lost the ability to take her medications properly and I didn’t live nearby. Who would give her her medications?
• She suddenly was unsteady walking and falling down and we needed a walker. How would we get one ASAP through Medicaid?
• We had to move her out of her apartment with tons of heavy furniture that I wanted to donate. Who would help me move it?
• She needed to move to an assisted living facility ASAP, moving from one state to another. What facility to move her to and how could we do it as quickly as possible?

It was stressful to say the least.

But God really used this time in my life to teach me to better trust Him. I wish I could say I’ve got that down pat, but I don’t. I still have to constantly remind myself that God is in control, not me, and to give it over to Him.

I learned in each of these situations that if I presented my prayer to God, He did take care of it — just not immediately :).

At the beginning of this journey, she was in the hospital for about a week after almost overdosing on her mediations, as we didn’t realize she wasn’t taking them properly. I spent a lot of time in that hospital’s chapel, begging God for help for what to do.

I am an only child, having to make all the decisions, and had never been through anything like that before. I literally had no idea what I was doing but wanted to do everything I could for her.

I learned to “give God a minute.” I would pray to God, asking him for a solution or someone to help and I would leave it for a few days. Inevitably, a solution presented itself.

Today, I have to remind myself when I make a petition in a stressful moment, that the solution is not always there immediately.

Remember, God is outside of time (that one always blows my mind ;-)), and His ways are not our ways, so God’s time is different than our time. And very often, the solution comes in a way that we didn’t expect. It’s often BETTER than what we were envisioning.

Key Steps to “Giving God a Minute”

For me, there are some key steps to take in a stressful situation.

1. Give everything over to God as best you can. 

This is incredibly difficult. The best thing I’ve found to help with this is the Surrender Novena by Father Dolindo, who knew Padre Pio. There is the written version here, but I’ve found this musical, spoken version below to be the balm that I need. It’s had more than 2 million plays, so I’m not the only one it’s helped.

I highly encourage you to play it in the car, in headphones while you’re walking/cleaning, etc. It’s so beautiful. Fr. Dolindo, who has been named a Servant of God, says it was given to him by Jesus.

If you find yourself in despair and don’t know what to do, give this a listen. It will help – I promise.

2. Pray to God for your needs

Before making your petition, it’s always a good idea to start your prayer in praise and thanksgiving. Then, make your prayer to God, and as the Surrender Novena says, say “Jesus, you take care of it” and do your best to give it to Him to solve, letting go of your worry and desire to control the outcome.

I find that, for me, this often comes with a lot of tears. There’s some level of making peace with any outcome that I think you have to go through and that can be painful. But if you can push through that pain and make peace, that’s when God really starts to act and move.

Another go-to prayer for me is Mother Teresa’s “flying” novena of the Memorare to the Virgin Mary. It is said she prayed it 9 times in a row when she had an urgent need and inevitably the need would be met. It’s a great prayer to use in an emergency when you need quick assistance.

3. Give God a minute 🙂

Recognize that your prayer is not likely to be answered immediately, though sometimes it might be! But I’ve found it helps to have patience and start looking for an answer to your prayer to show up. For me, I always found strangely that it took a couple of days and then suddenly, the solution appeared.

Sometimes, I receive a consolation through a sign like the double rainbow above that appeared literally right over my neighborhood after taking a walk and mulling over a difficult situation. That was one of the most stunning signs from God I’ve ever received. It reminded me that God is with me, He is working in the situation and to trust and have patience.

4. Realize the solution might be different than you expected

God knows all and designs all. He knows the best way to bring good from this situation and how it needs to come about. Very often, a solution you never thought of will be the answer. I’ve found in my life that God comes up with things I never could have imagined that are WAY better than what I envisioned as the perfect answer.

5. If you don’t get an answer…

A wise friend recently told me “When you don’t hear, or don’t know, do nothing. Wait until you know that you know!”

And I’ve found that when I don’t get a solution, say, for example, a financial solution, very often God is turning me in a different direction. He is forcing me to stop an action, a business, a job, a way of life, so that He can redirect me a different way. These are things I would not stop doing on my own unless I no longer could.

So if He makes it so you, or someone in your life, can no longer do something or something just isn’t working, maybe it’s because He’s calling you to something different, a different solution – and that thing is usually going to be WAY better than what you’re doing now or what you thought was the answer. You just have to have the trust and patience to keep going and see what’s on the other side.

How do you find God works in your life in stressful situations?