UNLEASHING THE K.I.S.S. MARRIAGE – When you don’t know what to do.
Posted: February 17, 2012
My husband Jack and I have a blended family of 5 children, and 9 grandchildren. They are all active, energetic ambitious people and they either go to school or live in different cities all across Canada and parts of the United States. We feel very helpless when our children call us and let us know there is some kind of trouble; perhaps illness, struggles in school, feeling overwhelmed, financial breakdown or a divorce. We feel vulnerable because we are not there to help them. Fourteen years ago, this feeling of helplessness caused us to make a decision that has empowered our lives in a way we could never have imagined. Jack and I made a radical, bold choice to meet each morning for bible reading and prayer.
We could never have anticipated the beauty and power of our morning encounters. The bible tells us that: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results” (James 5:16 NLT). Here are the wonderful results that have transpired:
1. When our children call and ask for prayer, they know that we will pray for them and this encourages them with new hope and strength.
3. Through prayer we change our “worry words into prayer words” and it removes our anxiety and transcends our worries into God’s resources.
4. It keeps our marriage vibrant, intimate and authentic. Here’s why:
i. You can’t stay angry with a person when you know you are going to be sitting beside them the next morning and praying together.
ii. Each morning we pray “for each other”. There is something uniquely powerful about hearing someone express our name in the presence of God.
iii. We bless each other. We ask God to unleash the other person’s gifts, abilities, passions so that we are empowered and fulfilled to make a difference in this world. Being blessed by another person through prayer; opens the door for God to pour His favor upon us. This is a powerful concept available to us to help us find and fulfill God’s purposes for our lives.
iv. We declare our love for each other in front of God.
v. Through the daily bible reading; we are constantly reminded of God’s great love, power and faithfulness in our lives. This gives us the foundation to go into our days with Godly courage and purpose.
5. This is our place refuge and hope when we felt helpless.
I know it is difficult to find that quiet time when there are still young children in the house, disrupted work schedules or just plain weariness. It can also feel awkward to sit and pray to an invisible God. But it’s kind of like going to a gymnasium for the first time when we feel overweight, under qualified and fearful. It takes one bold step to start, and then a lot of smaller steps to begin to see progress and then ultimately feel and see the beautiful results.
There are a lot of struggles in today’s world, but we are never helpless. The greatest and most powerful resource for us in our daily life, but especially our marriage, is the power of prayer. When we pray, we release our struggles into the hands of a creator God who has supernatural resources available to help us in any given situation. Yes all; deaths, cancer, divorces, financial struggles and more. We’ve encountered them all. When we didn’t know what to do . We pray.
