Pray for Marriage

When was the last time you prayed for your marriage or a friends marriage?

In my small group this past week, we spoke a little about praying for marriage. I'll be honest and tell you that I take my marriage for granted many times. My husband and I have had the rough and tough times (any newlyweds feeling me?) and at this moment we live content. Now, contentment is a wonderful thing, but I find in my own life that it can make me lazy as well :).

The consequence of this is that I can tend to put my husband in the wrong place in life. I work hard, I also workout hard, and I deal with home and kids, not to mention the counseling and client issues. So, at the end of the day, I have found I quite enjoy lazy, sweat pants, couch potato time. This places my husband somewhere under what I have deemed most important but over that which I simply don't want to do.

The truth is that my husband is a gift and I should treat him as such. That doesn't mean I should be at his every beckoned call or fulfill every whim, but I should make the time to show him I am grateful. One way to accomplish this is by knowing your spouse's love language. My husband and I have totally different love language: I am acts of service (pick up your clothes and help with dinner) and he is very much physical touch. In fact, him AND the kids believe a hug can fix anything. I believe this hug is wasting valuable time you could use to pick up your clothes. See the struggle :)


Another way to put your marriage first is by scheduling dates. My hubs and I love to go to movies, especially the theaters that serve food. We have smaller dates as well. Every week we go grocery shopping together and treat it as a date. We hold hands, share dreams, plan meals and will get a treat to munch on the way home. There are other times we send our teenagers upstairs so we can have a little time to ourselves. These dates are vital to keeping our marriage healthy, and like keeping your body healthy, it takes work.

The best way to help a marriage is through prayer. I have started to pray over my marriage more and over the marriages of my small group gal pals. What are some things to pray over a marriage? There are no hard and fast rules, but here are a few things I pray:

1. That Satan be bound from our marriage and that he be given no foothold.
2. That God would open up times for real communication.
3. That my heart would be softened to my husbands needs.
4. That our passion for one another be rekindled daily.
5. That we both strive to make an effort in this union that will last a lifetime.

As I said, we have been through tough times and I am sure there are more to come due to the fact that we live in an imperfect world...however, we can strive towards a WHOLE marriage by putting in a little elbow grease and a lot of prayer.

Now it's your turn: share the things you do to keep your marriage fresh in the comments below. Those who have been married for a long time (Alan and I have made 17+ years so far!), share the lessons you have learned so others may grow. We all have a story and yours can help others!
Michelle