When Is the Last Time You Prayed For Your Spouse?

It wasn’t until two years ago that I realized that – as with much of my Christian life up to that point – my prayer life was out of balance.

From an early age I had considered that prayers having to do with me or my needs were selfish and that the majority of my prayers should concern those outside my home.

In an effort not to consume my prayers mainly on my home and the needs of my home, I filled my list with needs of my friends, their families, their children, their marriages….

while putting our needs, my family, my children and my marriage at the bottom, which usually resulted in them receiving hurried words shot to heaven because I was running out of time. Or no prayers at all, because before I reached that part of my list, little chubby legs would come barreling out of their bedroom demanding their morning hot cocoa and a cartoon.

Then I read a book that radically challenged the wisdom of this kind of thinking and realized that God gave me this home, this family, this marriage and these children as treasures for me to hold in my arms and heart, not others’ marriages and children and needs. To not put my own first on the list was not only wrong, it was irresponsible!

Yes, we need to pray for others. Scriptures commands us to do so. But our first prayers should be for our treasures.

Darlene from Time Warp Wife has written a book that has once again challenged the way I pray. You can read her announcement here!

100 Prayers for Your Marriage is simply that. A book of prayers with corresponding scriptures to pray over your marriage. These are simple prayers, not long drawn-out fancy words. I like that, because its a prayer that I can fill my heart with in the morning and continue to pray throughout the day.

To be honest, I pray for my husband but I don’t often pray for my marriage. I need to, because as I read through these wonderful prayers that Darlene gave us to pray, I realized with new clarity that our marriages are a clear target for the enemy.

In a day when divorce is as prevalent in the church as in the world and when lackadaisical marriages filled with passivity and void of passion are even more likely than divorce, we must be vigilant and watchful to thwart the enemies plan to destroy – or at the very least render us indifferent to one another!

Wow – until now I had never even considered the seriousness of that danger.

100 Prayers for Your Marriage isn’t another book by Darlene, it is a companion volume that goes hand-in-hand with her last book Messy Beautiful Love. Yes, both volumes stand on their own, but together they make a powerful set and should be on the shelf of every home. Together. Well read. Well loved. Well used. Dogeared, underlined and with notes in the margin because both challenge you to view your marriage differently than you ever have before.

Do you know someone getting married this summer? Buy them this book.

Are you married? Do yourself a HUGE favor and buy this book!

As wives, we commanded to love and obey our husbands and a part of that love is to daily – and multiple times daily – lift our husbands and marriages before the throne. Protecting that honor and those vows in our hearts. Protecting that sacred bed in our hearts and minds.

So today, I open up this volume, and I read:

“Please help us [not me, us – marriage is us] to shape our attitudes….when we’re faced with a choice, remind us to be happy, to be joyful, to be thankful…”

and I’m reminded that as I pray these prayers over my marriage, I am also praying them over my home because my children will reap the rewards of these prayers.

Dear Jesus, may they see You in our marriage. May our marriage filled with love and joy, passion and purity, grace and forgiveness and YOU shape in them the importance of this covenant and a healthy image of what a godly marriage should be!

Rosilind Jukic, a Pacific Northwest native, is a missionary living in Croatia and married to her Bosnian hero. Together they live with their two active boys where she enjoys fruity candles, good coffee and a hot cup of herbal tea on a blustery fall evening. Her passion for writing led her to author her best-selling book The Missional Handbook. At A Little R & R she encourages women to find contentment in what God created them to be. You can also find her at Missional Call where she shares her passion for local and global missions. She can also be found at on a regular basis. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google +.