30 Days of Praying for Your Local High School: Day 18 Praying for Your Husband

30 Days of Prayer

When I was in elementary school our gym teacher, Mr. Sherald, forbade us from ever using the words, “I can’t.”  This frustrated me a great deal at the time.  Athletics weren’t exactly my strong suit, so those words often crossed my lips in the gymnasium.  Mr. Sherald kept correcting me even as I finished last, or next to last in every possible category.

Twenty years later, I transitioned from full-time teaching and ministry to full-time motherhood and a debt-snowball.  Before I knew it the words, “I can’t” were escaping left and right.  “I can’t do that.  We can’t afford that.  I don’t have time for that.  I don’t know how to do that.  I’ve never done that before.  Please don’t ask me to do that.  I’ve never been good at that.  I can’t.  I can’t.  I can’t.”

One of the things that I began to realize and struggle with almost as soon as I began walking and praying for our local high school, is that I am one of the biggest obstacles to my husband’s success in youth ministry.  My “I can’t” attitude has limited his usefulness in the kingdom of God.  Yet, I can tell you with all honesty, that he has never complained about how I have been holding him back.

When I began this walk, my primary motivation was to pray for the school and students where my husband works.  I wanted to take an interest in my husband and in his work.  However, I had no idea how much this time in prayer would change me in such a short time:

  • Three days after I started walking I insisted we update our phones immediately.  We got local phone numbers (yes, we’ve lived here 2 years!), texting (no, we haven’t had texting since 2007), and a smart phone (we still had 2 flip phones from 2009) with a data plan.
  • On the first day of walking I met the owner of the coffee shop down the street and asked her to host our Club.  12 days later she hosted our Club for the first time.  2 days from now she’ll host a second Club.
  • I looked at my husband’s raffle prizes in the prize box and decided to dress them up.  3 high school boys were delighted to take home brightly wrapped t-shirts, wrist bands, buttons, carabiners, and coffee shop gift cards.
  • Twice in the last 3 weeks I’ve walked with posters and duct-tape to advertise our Clubs on the traffic light poles around the school.
  • I’ve stopped by the school’s front office at least 4 times with fliers advertising our Clubs.
  • I’ve personally invited at least 5 students to our Clubs.
  • I’ve called or messaged some of my adult friends to share about the ministry, and invite their involvement.
  • When a female student showed up on our doorstep hoping one of us could come jump-start her dad’s car, I offered to drive her while Brad stayed home with the kids.
  • Instead of just watching my husband prepare for his annual spaghetti dinner, and cleaning the house, I took an active role in preparing the food.  As soon as we were done, I asked how soon we could do it again.

You get the idea.  The more I have walked and prayed for my husband and the school where he works, the more my eyes have been opened to how I can be a better wife and helper to him.  As I have walked around the school, approaching students and teachers, and interacting with business owners and church-goers, God has given me a great deal of insight into the man I married almost 8 years ago.

In these last 18 days, I have gained so much more respect for how hard my husband works at his job.  When I am praying for my husband and his work every day, I naturally think of ways I can help him throughout the day.  Instead of an “I can’t” attitude, I have an “I can” attitude.  I may be a stay-at-home-mom of 3 small children, and we may be a 1-income 1-vehicle family, but there is still a lot that I can do to help my husband in ministry.

Do you pray regularly for your spouse?  What changes have you noticed in your marriage since you began this habit?

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3 Responses to “30 Days of Praying for Your Local High School: Day 18 Praying for Your Husband”

  1. Katherine A. says:

    Great post, Jessica! I think your encouragement is a great one! And I love how creative you have been in helping Brad.

    I have my moments of being a help / hindrance with Mark’s ministry. I great days where I want to brainstorm, talk through, listen, and just plain old help. There are other days where the last thing I want to do is hear about church stuff!

    One of the most important things I try to do is give him perspective as he’s heading out the door to do a visitation or preach a sermon. I remind him that “his job” is to bring the gospel to people. He gets to preach about Jesus, he gets to offer the hope of Christ. It’s so exciting!

    Anyway, great post.

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