Faith & Focus Friday

The Prayer That Saved
My Family When We Had Nothing Left

I couldn’t even afford new glasses. That’s the day I finally surrendered.

By Dee Patience·Founded on Faith·4 min read

I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression for decades, in the same cycle every time. Give until I’m empty. Try to refill myself alone.

In 2021, that emptying caught up with me. I was 13 years into a state job I only kept for the insurance, because my daughter needed doctors, therapy, and medicine. COVID pushed everything remote overnight, and something in me broke. A doctor on a video call looked at me and asked, “Ma’am, are you okay?” I was done saying I was fine. I said, “No.” That week, I went into a hospital.

I got help. I came home. My daughter had made me a little pillow while I was gone. She believed I would get better.

But getting help was not the same as surrendering. I went on disability, started therapy, and kept trying to find my way back to work, mostly on my own strength. For a while, that felt like enough of a plan.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”Matthew 11:28, ESV

In 2023, I had to admit I would never really go back to that job. The disability insurance ran out. I tried to find other work and could not. Our income went to nothing, and I used my entire 401k just to keep us afloat.

By 2025 we were completely out of money. My husband’s clients had lost their businesses during COVID, and his savings were gone too. Our daughter was struggling at school. We were not just tight. We were lost in survival mode.

That is when I could not afford new glasses for myself. Not a family need, just something I needed so I could see. I called my dad and asked him to help pay for a few hundred dollars I did not have. I remember thinking, clearly, this cannot be what life is supposed to look like.

I was tired of surviving. So I finally surrendered, and I asked God the only honest prayer I had left:

“God, if You are there, and if You can hear me, save my family.”

Over the next three weeks, He did. We started going to church. Our daughter joined the Wednesday night youth group. My husband and I started going on dates while she was there. New clients came, out of nowhere, for our family. It felt like a miracle, because I do not believe it could have been anything else.

“Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”1 Peter 5:7, ESV

Later that year, I asked God for something else. I had been building my husband’s business. I wanted to build one of my own. I prayed for the right people, the right coaching, the right partners, and every time, He sent them.

At the end of 2025, I started writing to Him. Not fancy. Just honest. In the beginning of 2026 I wanted one daily habit to actually talk with Him, not just read about Him. I found a blank dot grid journal. Left page, prompts. Right page, free space to write, draw, or just be honest.

I started with thanks, because if you do not start there, you stop seeing God anywhere. At first I was not even sure which order the words went in. For a while Focus came before Faith. Then I learned faith is what helps you focus, not the other way around. So I switched it.

That is TGIFF™. Thanks. Grace. Intent. Faith. Focus. It walks me from panic, fear, anxiety, and doubt, to actually trusting God.

Thanks. Grace. Intent. Faith. Focus.

Focus is its own acronym too: Find One Clear, Useful Step. It reminds me I do not need the whole picture. I just need to work with God to find one clear, useful step.

You do not need the whole path. Just the one lit step.

I did not build it to publish it. I built it because I needed it every single day, and I still do. It became the book I have now.

Here is the part I want you to hear, whatever your version of this is: surrender was not giving up. It was giving God what I could not carry alone.

Peace first. Then clarity. Then momentum. That order matters. I tried it backward for years, and it never worked.

This year, in April, I got baptized. As of July 1st, I handed my entire business over to the clients who pay for it directly, so I could step back and build something new in public. A book. A product. A service.

I have never had this much peace. I am off every medication. I do not go to therapy anymore. I am in Bible study. I mentor. I volunteer. Every decision now, I make with Him first.

If you are in the part of the story that feels like ashes, you are not beyond help. You may just be at the place where pretending has to stop.

Start there. Tell God the truth. Then ask Him for one clear, useful step.

This is the first of several Fridays where I will walk through that same practice with you, one word at a time. Thanks. Grace. Intent. Faith. Focus. Come back and walk through it with me.