Marriage Challenge Week #3This week the hard work begins! If you do not yet own "The Power of a Praying Wife" by Stormie Omartian - get it! It is an excellent guide and a treasure to keep on your book shelf.
James 5:17 says "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
Prayer changes things - do you believe that? Then let's get started! Here's a list of items you can begin to pray through for your husband (taken from Stormie's book):
1. His Wife -that's a good place to start right? lol!
2. His Work
3. His Finances
4. His Sexuality
5. His Affections
6. His Temptations
7. His Mind
8. His Fears
9. His Purpose
10. His Choices
11. His Health
12. His Protection
13. His Trials
14. His Integrity
15. His Reputation
16. His Priorities
17. His Relationships
18. His Fatherhood
19. His Past
20. His Attitude
21. His Marriage
22. His Emotions
23. His Walk
24. His Talk
25. His Repentance
26. His Deliverance
27. His Obedience
28. His Self-Image
29. His Faith
30. His Future
Challenge: Print this list out and pray through this list daily. Also, do not forget to ask your husband each morning for any specific prayer requests he has for the day. I do this regularly and my husband always answers with a detailed situation he is concerned about. It's a blessing to pray for him and watch God work and answer. Our intimacy has grown through this and he always knows he has a prayer warrior in me. If you don't pray daily for him - who will?
Like a string around your finger reminding you of something important, let your wedding ring be a reminder to pray this week. I want you to pray every time you look down and see your wedding ring. When you take your ring off to wash dishes or shower - say a sentence prayer for your husband. When you are sitting watching television, reading a book or typing on your computer and your ring flashes your way - say a sentence prayer for your husband. Make it a habit to pray for your husband.I have always used symbols, such as my ring, as reminders to pray for my husband through out the day. Another symbol I use is a bucket truck. As you saw in a post last week, my husband is in the bucket truck industry. When the kids and I are driving we regularly pass bucket trucks and immediately I have one of the children say a sentence prayer for daddy and his job. As we build these habits ourselves, we also train our children to follow our example.
Now I mentioned for a bonus that you could fast and pray for your marriage this week. There are many times over this past year that I have fasted for my family and issues we are facing. My husband and I usually fast together which is such a blessing to our marriage. And I often invite a girlfriend to join my fast (my good morning girls have fasted with me multiple times and my sweet friend Angela from GoodMorningGirls.org is a fasting friend - we text each other through out the day with encouragement). If you are looking for info on fasting you can read my post here and here. And I recommend Susan Gregory's website here.
I am praying for you all, as you pray for your husbands! If you are committing to pray for your man everyday this week - write a blog post about it - link back to this post - and then link up below!Walk with the King!
Wow!!! Challenging!!! But with much excitement! Love the idea of 1 sentence prayer when you see a "reminder" ... Again, thanks so much for your ministry Courtney! I am praying for you as well.
ReplyDeleteawesome ideas! My hubby is a paramedic, so each time we see an ambulance we can pray for him! <3
ReplyDeleteGreat timing! I was just working on a list of how to pray for our husbands, and this will be a great start. Thanks so much for sharing, and I love the idea of letting my ring be a prayer reminder.
ReplyDeleteBlessings on your marriage today, Courtney,
Julie
Amen, it is so important to pray for the leaders of our home. I love all of Stormie's books.
ReplyDeleteI love The Power of a Praying Wife. Great ideas for using reminders, Courtney.
ReplyDeleteI love The Power of a Praying Wife. Great ideas for using reminders, Courtney.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using our wedding rings as a reminder to pray for our husbands. Thanks for this post.
ReplyDeleteThis is gonna be a great one!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea to use our wedding rings as reminders! My husband is a computer programmer and types all day. he says he thinks of me when his ring catches his eye. I pray for my husband all the time, but now I will pray for him every time I notice my ring. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThat is so true - that if we don't pray for him, who will? We had better be praying for our husbands. It is the most important thing we can do for them! Second, teach the children to respect him by showing him respect yourself. Third, burn the hubby-do list.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post, I will definitely have to check out the book recommended! But I have to admit, praying for my husband has been very difficult for me in the past. Not sure why - I can easily pray for my work (in and out of the home), our children, our finances. I guess I get discouraged because my husband doesn't really believe in prayer. He doesn't think God is really concerned about the small details of our lives. He also doesn't understand the importance of his leadership to our family. He didn't grow up seeing a godly, husband/father figure. But you are right, if I don't pray for him, who will?
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Mary Ellen
Hello,
ReplyDeletejust a little work to say you thank you for sharing this all with you.
Since I discover your blog, my life goes better.
I discover the importance for praying for my familly, for my husband.
I understand that God make me a stay at home wife for my husband and my children since I understand that our life is better.
So thank you so much for this all.
Thank you for my english too, since I read your blog (and other links you give), I read some books in english and so I practice more and can help my older daugther!!!!
Walk with the KING.
Kisses from France.
I was given The Power of a Praying Wife as a gift this past Christmas and it has changed my marriage forever! The binding is broken, highlights everywhere, I've written many words and prayers in the margins... all signs that this book is well loved. I have opened it everyday since the beginning of the year, reminding me to pray for my husband daily.
ReplyDeleteJust as Courtney suggests, Stormie's book is a great 30-day devotional ladies. Listen to her and grab this book for your bookshelves... AWESOME! The power of prayer, turning to God for protection and guidance over your loved ones, and trusting that he'll take your feet on the path intended will help you become the wife your husbands needs... and wants!
I love this idea Courtney! Thank you so much for the time put into this challenge!
ReplyDeleteGod Bless!
Loving your reminder idea as well (so simple - why didn't I think about it earlier). I am getting too used to wearing a wedding band so just like you use a bucket truck as an extra reminder - I'll use a Starbucks cup (he he he he he - my love works at Starbucks)
ReplyDeleteRevive our Hearts ministries (www.reviveourhearts.com) has an excellent article/PDF on "31 Days of Praying for Your Husband". I have been doing this for a while and it has been so wonderful.
ReplyDeleteLauren
I love the challenge. I do pray for my husband daily. I even have the Power of a Praying Wife book, what I pick up on occasion, but I still miss half of those areas. Thanks for the reminder, thank You Jesus for the conviction!
ReplyDeleteMy printer is no the fritz but I so love this list! I do pray for my man daily but not this specifically. It´s an eye opener. thank you.
ReplyDeletethank you too for taking the time to come by and write a comment on my blog. I know you are getting a lot of mail and comments. It means a lot.
I am so encouraged to know you are out there running too. I was thinking after this race was done what do I train for now? I will keep working out of course but knowing that you are out there running too will help motivate me. ;)
Encouraging one another in Jesus,
Dani Joy
I loved the wedding ring prayer reminder. THANKS!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas & encouragement! Thank you! I'm a week behind on the challenge but I'm going to make a point to catch up this week. Priscilla Shirer (Going Beyond Ministries) has suggested having a morning fast tomorrow, so this will go right along with it. Thank you again for helping me to remember to prioritize my husband & to pray for him more!
ReplyDeleteNominated you for a blog award. It can be found over at my blog. I love reading your blog it is such an inspiration!
ReplyDeleteCourtney - I LOVE this post. It's so good - so right on. And the wedding ring reminder is BRILLIANT. Thanks for sharing that tip. Power of a Praying Wife is really rich - and I need to go dig mine out and go through it again!
ReplyDeleteI am such a procrastinator... finally got my post up! (and it's a short one) I have Stormie's book and think I should probably pull it out again!
ReplyDeletethanks again!!
Still have not done any post's... have not been blogging at all for a while. But wanted to encourage everyone here & say thank you for the ideas on prayer!! I've been using Stormie's book for two years now that I pray through off/on.
ReplyDeleteAsking for some extra prayers here; as I cannot discuss praying with my DH b/c he's on the fence in confusion with God. He knows I'm praying... and waiting. When God leads for me to speak again, I will; but for now - Being Still and watching God work in our family.
Love the idea of when you see a bucket truck you or your children pray for your husband!! I think I'll use delivery trucks (since my DH drives & delivers coffee for a living)!!
Hugs, HL
HLJourneyatgmaildotcom
This was awesome. My husband was starting to give me a sideways look by the end of the week with, "What is UP with you lately?" :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Courtney.
I trying to catch up on my challenge posts. I wanted to stay strong to my commitment. I will be doing the latest challenge hopefully soon.Thanks for all your prayers over us Courtney! God Bless
ReplyDeletehttp://sboergersmith.blogspot.com/2010/07/marriage-challenge-3-pray-for-your.html
It makes me sad to see so very many women so caught up in their husbands that they're losing their own identities as individuals.
ReplyDelete