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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Prayer 2.0 - Upgrading My Single Girl Prayers

I am a regular reader of Mara Kofoed's blog, A Blog About Love. She's cute and she’s also a caring voice in midst of a digital desert. Anyway, I recently ran into her blog about praying couples. I love that she and her husband Dan identified prayer as the "glue" that keeps marriages together.




The blog also reminded me that prayer is one part of my single life that hasn't totally conformed to fit my new role as a wife.



As a single, I prayed for my family members, friends and myself by myself!



But as wife, there are now more people to put ahead of myself: My husband and his family and friends! I'm sad to say I didn't immediately see the need to pray for my husband et. al. I felt he had his own relationship with God and could easily do that on his own.



But now that I’ve diving into Hayley DeMarco's The Fruitful Wife and now Mara's blog, I'm realizing that I am probably the best person to pray for him. I pledged before God and others to unconditionally love my husband. I also live with him and am intimately acquainted with his anxieties, desires, needs and joys on a daily basis. It would be selfish to go before the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and not tell him about my husband’s needs. It would be foolish too. The mood of one affects the mood of the other.



I also found an awesome prayer sheet to remind and help me to better pray for my husband.



Another challenging thing about praying as a wife is praying in front of my spouse- and I'm not talking about praying for a meal, I'm talking about praying about real life.



I never realized how intimate my personal prayer time was until the first time I felt the need to pray for David in front of him ... aloud. I remember it clearly: It was a Saturday morning, we were sitting in bed and David had just opened up about some of his feelings. Boy, it was weird to vocalize my feelings and speak freely with God knowing he (David) was in on the conversation. Talk about third wheel!



To be honest, I’m still working on it. Additionally I'm working on prioritizing joint prayer. Even though I value my personal prayer time, I know that our intamacy will only grow as we pray together. Fortunately ever day is a new opportunity!



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2 comments

Beth said...

Praying with and for my husband is something that has really improved all aspects of our relationship. I'm so glad that you're pushing past that awkwardness and vulnerability that is always present at the beginning of that practice. I still feel a twinge of it today at times. But mostly it's something I really enjoy and know is building up the security and love in my marriage. Great thoughts here, Stephanie! Thanks so much for sharing and challenging all of us to something so worthwhile!

stephaniesamuel said...

Thanks Beth. I appreciate the encouragement. It is getting easier to pray with my husband and I've notice- to my delight- that he is opening up too.

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