God works

I feel so fortunate that the Creator of the Universe lets me talk to Him, that He wants to talk with me. I have so much I could say about prayer that it would take a whole bunch of posts.

So I decided to focus on just one specific area that God's worked in my life, much to my amazement, through prayer during these last few years. It's in the area of marriage.

You may not be at all like me. You may be an optimistic, outgoing, self-secure individual who came from a healthy, loving, stable Christian family. Well, like I said, that's not me. But I am so grateful that God works in our lives and we don't have to stay the same.

When my husband John and I wed in 2005, I was determined to not make the same mistakes that I'd insanely repeated through much of my life.

I know John and know that he prays for me daily. His prayers have resulted in some basic truths finally getting through to me (I didn't happen to have the family background where I learned the basic skills for a successful marriage). I've learned that you can not change another human being. I've also learned that every single person on the planet can be annoying sometimes and you just have to extend one another a lot of space and grace. So, instead of nagging my poor beloved, or pushing for my way when something was important to me, I committed myself to be quiet and pray.

Guess what happened?

God worked. He has done such a better job at things than I ever could have demanded, manipulated, controlled, or coerced into happening. I can let go and let God work instead of thinking the whole world is on my shoulders and that I have to be responsible for everything. I commented on David's post on Monday about how when I read passages in the Bible such as Ephesians 6:12 and Daniel 10:12-14 my awareness of the spiritual realm is increased. I believe that prayer is one of God's ways for us to work in that spiritual realm. John's prayers on my behalf have been fruitful and God is working in me, changing me; from the inside out.

It's also been cool when situations arise where I want so much to argue with John and push for something, I can just be quiet and go pray. A really light weight example (because who wants to share the heavy weight ones?) of this happened this past year. John grew up with a dad who didn't like pets and they never had pets, so John didn't learn to enjoy animals in his life. During our first year that we moved here my younger two sons and myself acquired a 5 month old dog from the local animal shelter. As John was looking toward retiring this past year, he told me that he didn't want this dog (Jake) to be a part of our household when he would be now be at home so much of the time. Well, if you're a dog person you know that 3 years with a dog makes him a part of your heart. Yet it's not like I could choose the dog over John. So I was quiet and prayed. A year later John has retired and Jake is still here. John is crazy about that dog and spoils him more than it would ever enter my mind to do. God changed John's heart. As we were out hiking this past week and we were watching Jake run up the steep mountain that John and I were slowly making our way up, John commented on how much joy this goofy dog brings into our lives.

What about you, what are some ways God's worked in your marriage through prayer?