Day 262 - Prayer

Cell phone text message from my husband:
"I've prayed and I believe God wants the two of us to go to bed early so we can both wake early and worship Him with prayer and Bible study. Everyday with all our heart! This is what God wants us to do. We, I owe it to Him for being such a forgiving, awesome God. Tomorrow we start and make this our first priority of everyday. We need to worship our God! I know He will give us the strength to get through our days if we just commit this time to Him. What's more important? A little more sleep...or becoming closer to the Lord Our God!"

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Wow. Can you believe those words by my husband? As I read that text, my jaw dropped and my heart pounded and overflowed with love for the "new" man he has become. For nearly 17 years of our marriage, I begged and pleaded with my husband to pray a simple prayer for me, for our children, for our marriage. For nearly 17 years of our marriage, I cajoled him into attending a church service...which he sat through while picking the lint off of his pants or looking out the windows and longing to be anywhere else but in the pew beside me. For nearly 17 years of our marriage, he would yell, "Turn that crap off!" whenever I was listening to Christian music. For nearly 17 years of our marriage, I prayed and prayed to God to save my husband...at first, so he would be a better husband and father...and then so he would go to heaven.

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And then I gave up. Completely and totally gave up on not only my marriage, but the chances that my husband would ever come to know Christ. I succombed to the knowledge that my marriage had failed, that I was going to be a divorced woman raising three children, and accepting this new role in life with a heavy heart. I gave up.

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And within a few short days, my husband was radically changed. God knocked yet again at the door to my husband's heart...and different from all the other times, my husband opened wide that door and allowed Jesus in.

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I almost can't believe it myself.

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Our prayer time this morning was short but sweet. We used to pray every morning together...remember? And then life got in the way, we slept in later, the kids' needs were put before bowing down to our Lord and Savior...and before we knew it, we were studying in bed at night, when the house was quiet and the children asleep. Only we were so exhausted we weren't any good at our prayer time or our devotion to the Lord.

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So then my husband's text arrived yesterday. We will begin anew. This morning was the first day of our early morning prayer/devotion time. We set the alarm for 5:30 a.m....but my husband forgot to turn the alarm "on," we we actually awoke at 6:15 a.m. We hightailed it downstairs where the coffee pot was waiting with a pot full of hot, yummy goodness. We knelt and prayed like we had done before...praying for our family, thanking God for our blessings, and praying for God to guide us and lead us both. And then we studied scripture on prayer. It was a great time of renewed fellowship together with the Lord.

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"My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning I will direct it to you, O Lord, and I will look up."

Psalm 5:3