Could Prayer Calm Your Chaos? w/J. Rosemarie Francis

J. Rosemarie Francis (00:00)

Hello, Solo Moms Could prayer be the answer to the continuous chaos and excess stress that you experience every day? Today I wanna talk to you about praying, prayer, and talking to God, your heavenly Father. Now, you may not believe in God, you may not pray,

maybe because you're too busy or because you don't believe prayer changes things. But I wanna encourage you today because I have experienced a miraculous thing. For the past 10, 15 years, I have been woken up at two, three o'clock in the morning. And when it first started to happen, I was mad, I was confused.

I was a little bit perturbed because I would lay awake for hours and end, wondering, fretting, worrying, know, stuff going over in my mind, you know, as a solo mom raising at the time my two youngest boys. Life was chaotic and I couldn't understand when I was so tired. I mean, I lay my head down and...

before morning break, I would be up, I would be awake, alert, but my mind would not stop. And maybe you can relate. But a miraculous thing happened a few nights after this kept going on and I am just like worried about it because I wasn't getting any sleep. And it was like one of these days, one of these nights as I was up thinking.

ruminating, worrying. It's as if the Lord said to me, come talk to me. And immediately I started to smile because it really felt like it was him calling me, come on, let's chat. And I turned over, I went into child's pose. If you've ever seen yoga done it, it's when you kneel.

and your head bowed and that's the pose I took and I took that pose night after night after night when I would lay awake and couldn't sleep and it felt like God was waking me up at those times to for me to talk to him.

because as a solo mom, I was busy, I was running, I was on the train, then I was at work, then I was back, and I just fell into bed when I got home. Sleep didn't come like it should. know, people said you should get eight hours of sleep, but it's very difficult. And when you have it, when your mind won't rest. And so I found this talk with God very comforting, but

There was more to it than that. So I wasn't just able to talk to God. And it was at these times that I was able to, the stuff that I was ruminating and fretting about, I now started talking to him about them. You know, I started to yell at him, I would praise him, I would thank him, and I would complain to him. You know it is, right? And if you are a believer,

then you understand this more than someone who doesn't believe. God is our father and when life gets tough, we tend to blame him and we tend to say, well, why am I wasting my time talking to you? Because you don't listen anyway, right? And so these moments, these early moments are the time when I got to connect with God.

And a lot of times I would fall asleep on my knees or I would get so tired kneeling I would lay down and continue to pray but I would fall asleep a lot of times praying in the middle of praying, right? And I felt better about it at first and then after a while I didn't. I just figured it was God's way of putting me back to sleep. But you know the wonderful, miraculous thing about those moments?

It was a time between about three a.m., two, three a.m., and six a.m. when I was getting up for work that I got the answers to a lot of my questions, a lot of things that were plaguing me. The answer came during that time. And sometimes it came during the day because my mind would go back to that moment when I was praying, talking, having this conversation and this argument with God.

A lot of times too when I lay down and I would fall asleep, I would have a dream. And the dream was like the answer to my prayer. So I want you to take my experience and think about it. Think about those times when you go to bed and you have difficulty sleeping and you are

and worried and frustrated because you just like to sleep and forget about everything until morning when you can get up and address things, right? So think about that time. That's the only time you may have to have a quiet, peaceful, uninterrupted conversation with your father unless you have a young baby. Well, you know, it is what it is, right?

But I wanted to encourage you with this because it is the time that you could use to connect with your father. So if you've lost that connection because you just haven't had time to communicate with him, because in a relationship you need to communicate, right? And if you're not speaking and you're too busy to listen, then you lose that connection.

And a lot of times the answers we get may not solve the immediate problem of finding enough money to cover an expense or solve a problem you're going through. But what that does, it gives you the peace, it gives you the comfort, it gives you the mindset to understand and remember.

that someone more powerful than anyone you know cares about you to wake you up at two, three o'clock in the morning to talk, to have a conversation, to tell him what is going on. I mean, he knows, but he wanna hear it from you. And I want to share something with you, just a scripture that will...

help you remember because sometimes we say, well, he doesn't care. I've said it a lot of times when things get really tough. I'm like, he don't care. He don't want to hear from me. But that's a lie. That's a lie that can be perpetuated and blown up to actually feel true. So I want to share one scripture with you. Philippians 4, 6 to 8. Be anxious for nothing.

but in everything by prayer and supplication, asking and praying with thanksgiving. Yeah, don't forget to say thank you. Let your requests be made known to God, because he wanna know what you want, right? And another one says, cast your care upon him, cast your anxiety on him.

because he cares for you. That's 1 Peter 7. Now, this is a different episode, a different topic from what I usually talk about on Solomon's talk. But this has been on my mind for a while because we are burdened down with a lot of things. And a lot of times we can't trust someone else to have our best interest.

because you tell someone and they have hidden agenda and it brings mistrust and it cause you to fall deeper into despair. So I wanted to share this one little tip with you to try praying, try prayer. Now maybe the two, three a.m. thing isn't you because you're a good sleeper.

Thank God, God bless you. There are other ways you could pray to God. On the train, going to work, in the car, going to work, in the shower, taking a shower, cooking, making lunch, whatever. There are different ways you could talk to God. It doesn't have to be kneel down in a quiet place. You can talk to God whenever you want.

because he's always with you. He's always there. He's not hidden away somewhere. You don't have to go through a third party. It's just him. It's just you and him.

So I encourage you, I encourage you, I implore you, solar moms, to...

Use this tool, this resource you have. God your father. If you believe, but you've walked away or you just don't have time or you just don't think he cares enough, try talking to him. If you don't believe and you want nothing to do with it,

I think you should try it. Give it a try. That's all I'm saying. Try. Try it once or twice. Try it for seven days. Give yourself the tools and the resources you need to live a victorious, empowered life. And prayer can do that for you.

J. Rosemarie Francis (11:04)

Before I finish, I wanted to bring one more thing to your attention. In a world where chaos reigns, at a time when every day you wake up, there's another thing to stress you out, to get you scared and worried for the safety of your life, your children's life, and your family's life, and your wellbeing. I want to remind you of this scripture, 2 Chronicles 7.

Verse 14 to 16, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and they will seek my face.

and turn from their wicked ways.

Then I will hear from heaven.

and will forgive their sins.

and I will heal their land. Does your land need healing today Solomon?

J. Rosemarie Francis (11:57)

Thank you for listening to this and for, indulging me in sharing my personal experience with you. I have raised three boys, the two last one I raised alone from the time they were two and four years old. And I am going to tell you that without trusting in a God who cares,

I would not have made it this far. And I'm going to ask you and encourage you to try praying. I'm also going to ask you to, if things are not going the way you want and you're looking for connection, I have decided that I needed to bring back Solo Moms Connect. Solo Moms Connect is a group

a community that I had when I first started SolaMomsTalk. And it was of great help, not just to me, but to the moms who joined the conversations. And we'd meet monthly and just talk about the different things that were happening. And this idea that we need connection is something that I found out

not just through these talks, but through surveys that I did with solo moms. I have interviewed maybe 200 people in the last five years. And I'm going to tell you that building connection is one of the best and safest way for you to be able to talk about the things that are happening to you.

And I got the idea for Solo Moms! Talk because I was in a discovery group at my church. And it was a private group of, I think, 14 women who were given the opportunity to talk about their lives, to talk about things that were going on with them. And the way it was done is that it was private. We weren't allowed to repeat what was said outside the group. And...

It was a safe place to communicate what we were feeling, what we were experiencing. And in those situations, I can tell you, we talked bad about God because we felt, some of us felt neglected and abandoned, not just by our parents, our spouse, but also we felt abandoned by God. And that discovery group, was nine weeks.

gave us the opportunity to reconnect with a father who loved us. And I'm going to tell you personally, I never saw God as my father before that discovery group. And it was what gave me the idea that solar moms needed this, needed something like this, a safe place to vent and not only to vent, but to get encouragement and resources to help you in whatever you need doing.

Whether you need work, more work, more money, whatever it is, help with your children. The perspective of someone who's been through it can help you. And so I'm going to ask you and encourage you to join Solo Moms Connect. The link is below. I encourage you to connect with other Solo Moms. And let's get empowered.

Let's shift our mindset from where we think we're alone to where we realize we're not alone. Thank you for listening. Join Solar Moms Connect today.