Praying For Your Husband – Changes You!

I prayed through The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian in June with Amy Verlennich and 30 Days of SHMILY (See How Much I Love You) at Dandelion Seeds.

It was a wonderful experience. I know that my husband was affected by it, but I was, too. He was working in another state at the time. I was not with him to interact with him in a normal way. But I was able to interact with God for him and to intercede for him. I think that’s what God had in mind for this season. My husband was home for a month but then had to leave again when he was hired back.

There are things that God is doing in my husband’s heart, in my heart, and in the hearts of our children through this separation. We are developing an appreciation for the “normal” everyday things that we don’t have right now. I hope that when the Lord brings us all back together again, we will use our time together to really be together and to do things together.

We, as a family, have been living separately even though we live in the same house. We are living independently, each doing our own thing for the majority of each day. I don’t think that’s really how we’re supposed to be living. We do come together to read every day, and we pray together sometimes. But that is not enough. And getting everybody to quit what they’re doing and come together is difficult. I have a hard time even getting myself to get off the computer and go downstairs to where we meet in the living room.

I have been learning from Marilyn Howshall and Barbie Poling at Influential Parenting that independent living is not God’s way for families to live. We are to be living together, doing things like chores, cooking, cleaning, projects, discussing and learning, studying the Bible and praying together.

I am trying to pull myself away from the computer more lately. I have tried to pay more attention to the little ones when they come to tell me things. I was so good with Shawn when he was little. I listened to every word he said and answered every question he asked. And I did pretty well with the next several children. But now that I’m down to the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth children, I’m not doing so well at giving them the attention they deserve when they tell me their stories or ask me their questions.

I’m also working on touching my children affectionately more. I’ve been praying about this and working on it for a while now. I can feel myself changing and hugging and touching without even thinking about it. I think the needs of the very young children have made it hard for me to see the needs of the older ones as far as affection and attention.

I only intended to write about praying for your husband in this post, but it turned into something else altogether.

The inspiration for this post was a prayer list that I found through Ann Voskamp’s blog at A Holy Experience.

I went to check out this prayer list, and it so perfectly matched the things I want to pray for my husband that I printed it out. I’m planning to pray each prayer on the corresponding day of the week. Jamie, who writes the blog See Jamie Blog, suggests that we personalize it and add five more specific prayers for our husbands to cover the remaining days of the month. Her list consists of 25 prayers for her husband. She has a scripture to go with each prayer. I’m looking forward to praying for my husband in an intentional way again this month. He needs it, and so do I.

Being able to pray is such an awesome privilege and responsibility. The things that are wrong in my family will be made right as I spend this time with the Lord in prayer. The peace and assurance that God gives us as we pray are worth more than all the money in the world.

God has chosen to use our prayers as His vehicle for changing things in the world. And He has chosen to use our prayers to reveal to us what needs to change in our own hearts. It’s two-way communication. We speak to Him, and He speaks to us. And His Presence is so comforting and peaceful that our faith is built up through the process. No wonder He says to pray without ceasing. It’s how we abide in Him.

So let’s pray to change things, pray to change ourselves and pray to get closer to God. Oh yes, and let’s pray for our husbands, too.