To go back to Day 1 of Day in the Life of a New Prayer Warrior, click here.
To read the 1st post of my prayer series, Into A Life of Prayer--A Journey, click here.
Days 2 & 3 chronicled below:
My husband and I worked out three days a week for husband/wife prayer. This will occur on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday--days he is home by 10:00 PM. On the remaining days I will pray on my own, after the kids have gone to bed, and husband is at work.
I also decided to give the boys three days a week to pray on their own, saving four days for corporate family prayer in the mornings. The earlier they develop this pray-alone discipline, the more impact it will have in their lives, making them mighty warriors for Jesus. They already read the Bible on their own seven days a week--from Psalms or Proverbs, or rereading what we've read together.
On Day Two of my prayer warrior journey, then, I prayed with my husband. We used the ACTS acronym and prayed for twenty minutes. It would have been longer, but he had a sneezing allergy attack halfway through our prayer. He is so ready to move to Arizona. The allergy shot series he had in California left him feeling good for several years, but now he is miserable again, and showing signs of mild asthma on exertion. We had a lot of health issues to pray about! Paul has had a few incidents of wheezing, but nothing like I've heard from husband. This has turned out to be a severe allergy season for our family, for whatever reason. Excessive rain--record breaking rain--is the only environmental change I've noticed this year. Rain itself is not supposed to aggravate allergies, but maybe it leads to more tree pollen over a season?
Anyway, we appreciated the time to pray together, uninterrupted by children, and we were happy to set regular dates for our prayer. Being intentional is so important! Marking a calendar or creating a prayer schedule helps the whole family draw closer to God.
I didn't have to convince my husband of anything to make this happen. While I wouldn't describe him as a prayer warrior, he definitely does value prayer. We started our marriage being very consistent about husband/wife prayer, but when our first colicky baby came along, joint prayer suffered. It has been good at times since then, and spotty other times.
If your husband is less receptive to husband/wife prayer, just pray about it consistently, letting God do the work in your husband's heart.
On Day Three of my prayer warrior journey, I was alone in the house, after putting the kids to bed. I was exhausted, but thankfully I had done the dishes and shuffled the laundry earlier in the evening. I drank some water and then sat right down to begin praying, using my new prayer blog. I considered how nice it was that I didn't have to look for anything--pen, pencil, pad of paper, etc. I just had to sit down and start typing.
As an aside: I had done about an hour of research the night before on The Lord's Prayer, using sermons given by John Calvin (1507-1564), John Wesley (1703 - 1791), and Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892). I wanted to know why the ACTS acronym has us praying confession second, but the Lord's Prayer (not meant to be recited, but to model prayer after) has confession further down. It makes more sense to me to ask for forgiveness up front, but I wanted to model my prayer along the line of the Lord's Prayer.
I will do a post on structuring prayer as soon as I'm done with my research. Husband pointed out that the Bible, when taken as a whole, seems to point to the importance of confession up front, after admiration--though he agreed The Lord's Prayer clearly isn't structured that way. Interesting subject that I will look into more--although as I said before, I think the Lord is happy with any discourse, and his Holy Spirit will help us structure our prayer in a way that pleases God.
Anyhow, for Day Three, I continued to pray using the ACTS acronym. The typing definitely kept me very focused and disciplined.
I had about thirteen minutes of prayer time before Beth woke up. After nursing her for fifteen minutes, I came back out and resumed my prayer, going for another fifteen minutes. I really think I've found what works for me! It was so easy to sit right down and get started, despite my exhaustion.
So tell me....how is it going for you?
To read the 1st post of my prayer series, Into A Life of Prayer--A Journey, click here.
Days 2 & 3 chronicled below:
My husband and I worked out three days a week for husband/wife prayer. This will occur on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday--days he is home by 10:00 PM. On the remaining days I will pray on my own, after the kids have gone to bed, and husband is at work.
I also decided to give the boys three days a week to pray on their own, saving four days for corporate family prayer in the mornings. The earlier they develop this pray-alone discipline, the more impact it will have in their lives, making them mighty warriors for Jesus. They already read the Bible on their own seven days a week--from Psalms or Proverbs, or rereading what we've read together.
On Day Two of my prayer warrior journey, then, I prayed with my husband. We used the ACTS acronym and prayed for twenty minutes. It would have been longer, but he had a sneezing allergy attack halfway through our prayer. He is so ready to move to Arizona. The allergy shot series he had in California left him feeling good for several years, but now he is miserable again, and showing signs of mild asthma on exertion. We had a lot of health issues to pray about! Paul has had a few incidents of wheezing, but nothing like I've heard from husband. This has turned out to be a severe allergy season for our family, for whatever reason. Excessive rain--record breaking rain--is the only environmental change I've noticed this year. Rain itself is not supposed to aggravate allergies, but maybe it leads to more tree pollen over a season?
Anyway, we appreciated the time to pray together, uninterrupted by children, and we were happy to set regular dates for our prayer. Being intentional is so important! Marking a calendar or creating a prayer schedule helps the whole family draw closer to God.
I didn't have to convince my husband of anything to make this happen. While I wouldn't describe him as a prayer warrior, he definitely does value prayer. We started our marriage being very consistent about husband/wife prayer, but when our first colicky baby came along, joint prayer suffered. It has been good at times since then, and spotty other times.
If your husband is less receptive to husband/wife prayer, just pray about it consistently, letting God do the work in your husband's heart.
On Day Three of my prayer warrior journey, I was alone in the house, after putting the kids to bed. I was exhausted, but thankfully I had done the dishes and shuffled the laundry earlier in the evening. I drank some water and then sat right down to begin praying, using my new prayer blog. I considered how nice it was that I didn't have to look for anything--pen, pencil, pad of paper, etc. I just had to sit down and start typing.
As an aside: I had done about an hour of research the night before on The Lord's Prayer, using sermons given by John Calvin (1507-1564), John Wesley (1703 - 1791), and Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892). I wanted to know why the ACTS acronym has us praying confession second, but the Lord's Prayer (not meant to be recited, but to model prayer after) has confession further down. It makes more sense to me to ask for forgiveness up front, but I wanted to model my prayer along the line of the Lord's Prayer.
I will do a post on structuring prayer as soon as I'm done with my research. Husband pointed out that the Bible, when taken as a whole, seems to point to the importance of confession up front, after admiration--though he agreed The Lord's Prayer clearly isn't structured that way. Interesting subject that I will look into more--although as I said before, I think the Lord is happy with any discourse, and his Holy Spirit will help us structure our prayer in a way that pleases God.
Anyhow, for Day Three, I continued to pray using the ACTS acronym. The typing definitely kept me very focused and disciplined.
I had about thirteen minutes of prayer time before Beth woke up. After nursing her for fifteen minutes, I came back out and resumed my prayer, going for another fifteen minutes. I really think I've found what works for me! It was so easy to sit right down and get started, despite my exhaustion.
So tell me....how is it going for you?
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