A Praying Wife

I know that many of my followers and wonderful blog friends and internet friends I have never met are Christians or other faiths as you have so diligently prayed for and encouraged me over the years.  With that said, I wonder how many of us really and truly pray for our spouses each and every day?  No, you don't have to come to confession on my blog,  I am just curious.

I am curious because I love my husband with all my heart and not a day goes by where I do not feel blessed to have him in our lives.  He works hard, never complains about the pain he is in, takes disappoints in stride and with much more ease and grace than I do and he never leaves the house without kissing me good-bye and telling me how much he loves me. 

It breaks my heart to hear friends whose husbands have passed tell me, 'I never told him I love him that day,' it tears at my very being because I cannot imagine not saying I love you. Three little words, but to me they are so much more.  On a bad day, they have the power to make me feel better, with bad news they have the power to calm me and if he ever left the house without saying I love you, I would be crushed.

I have had several friends lose their husbands recently and I am talking young men under the age of 60 and it dawned on me, I need to be praying more for my husband but more over, I need to pray for his wife as well, yes, I need to pray for me because I sometimes fall short in my duties due to my health and I sometimes snap at him when he doesn't deserve it and I just feel I can do more everyday since I am not working out of the home to support him.

I picked up the book and prayers of 'The Power of a Praying Wife,' and the first chapter isn't about how to pray for him, how to change him, how to make him a better spouse, it was a knock in the head by God on how I need to change myself!

Help ME to be a good wife. Take my selfishness (yes, I can be selfish), impatience (this is me 100% not an ounce of patience in me lately), irritability (oh with this Fibromyalgia I am a certified Grinch!). But I don't want to be this way. I am tired of being tired lately, of not feeling well, of having most recently to pick my cane up to walk again and I want to laugh again!

I keep asking myself, 'when did I quit laughing and become so negative?'  I don't know if it is my medications or what, but I am determined to change myself and PDQ at that!  So the past few days, I get up every morning and I pray not only for his day to be filled with blessings but for me to feel better.

Lord, I can't change him and deep down I don't want to, but I do want to change me!  So I went to the pool last week one day and worked out in the gentle motions class. I would have gone more, however they resurfaced our pool and 3 steps into it, I slipped and fell and landed on my hip pretty hard, so decided to wait until I can get aqua shoes this week.  I can say, for 2 days after that I did feel a bit better.

I have taken my days and instead of looking at them as fuller than a tick on a fattened hog, I have broken them down so I am not overwhelmed and it seems to help keep me on track.

The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is pray for my family, my day and do my Bible readings. Then I get up and make my bed. Seriously I don't know about anyone else, but if I don't make my bed first thing up, I don't seem to accomplish much during the day at all.

I then make myself a cup of coffee and continue my daily readings, my prayers for those I have prayer requests for and check my calendar for the day.  Then it is time to get kids up for school and while they are moving around, it is time to make breakfast for the kids and I don't mean throwing cereal into a bowl and while they are eating we read their daily readings, talk about the day and fix lunches.

I drive them to school because they attend a school I had to get a variance for as I love their STEM program and the school itself.

On Mondays I come home and start washing sheets that the kids have taken off their beds and carried down stairs.  While downstairs I check to see what messes I can pick up or dust or even just sit down and do some needle work or quilt work while the sheets are in the wash.  It is to difficult for me to climb the stairs all day.

Once the sheets are in the dryer, I come back upstairs and do a quick dusting (I love Swiffer dust cloths they help me so much!).  The rest of the week is very similar with adjustments to what I can and can't do but each day I try to do something to show my husband and my family how much I appreciate them.

We usually take the puppy with us to football practice so she can run around at the park. We take her ball and keep her on a retractable leash so she can run, but she can't run away.  I usually leave midway during practice and come home and get dinner out of the way and the girls get their showers done.

After supper is finished and homework is checked, I sit with hubby and watch television with him and while many times I am not really into what we are watching, I am thankful it isn't football and he isn't a sports fanatic, so I watch or read, but we always hold hands and I know at the end of the day, I need to continue to pray for him, but more so, I need to continue to pray for his wife!