Praying Our Way to Our 30th

I really thought my posts on "our story" was pretty much completed.  I already had a couple of ideas for "lighter" posts, but ... sometimes God just nudges -- and He whispers "you haven't finished yet".  And so, this may (or may not) be the completion on how my husband & I have "made it" to our 30th anniversary (in May).

So, you may want to read my previous posts so that you'll see that I am only sharing through a bit of personal experience.  

CLICK HERE to read The ABCs of 30  just shares some of what we've learned over these past 30 years together ...

And then I share how we met & our first few years of marriage before --- well, you can

 CLICK HERE to read our Once Upon a Time

And the what-I-thought was the last post CLICK HERE to read When Our Fairytale Met Real Life  about how close we were to the end "us".

I prefaced this post with these links for this reason ---

I want all of my generations that follow me to learn from the things I've messed up and also from something that I *may* have done right.  And --- I really & truly do not know if anyone else may read these posts and be in the same place that I've been in before.  

We never know how God may use our own experiences to "comfort those who are in any need" {II Corinthians 1}

So as God had me thinking about my posts today, He brought an aspect to me that I believe is just so vital in any relationship ... but especially in marriages.  It's one that I really only "got" when I began to look inward instead of outward.  Sometimes we do this one aspect with out-pouring hearts ... and at other times it may seem more of a formality or even a ritual [you know, going through the motions and words but never allowing the words to penetrate into our hearts].

PRAYING for each other

We pray for our families, our friends, our churches ...

We pray for those who are sick, job situations, other needs ...

We pray for our country, leaders, world events ...

As my husband & I were rebuilding our marriage, one of my turning points was when I poured my heart out to God Almighty on my knees in prayer for my husband.  Now, I will say that it was such an "easier" prayer for me to say things like 

"Please, dear God, help him not do ______"  or 

"Lord, please make him ______" 

But ... the prayers that truly began a turning point was when I prayed like

"Dear Lord, I know that I am not a perfect person and my husband is not a perfect person. Please open my eyes and my heart to become the wife that he needs by his side and to journey on this road together."

When someone prays for "God to change the other person" ... 

perhaps it's more to the heart of the matter that the person who "needs to change" is actually 

right there in the flesh whom we see looking back in the mirror.  And as my prayers evolved from "praying for him to change"  to actually "praying for my heart to focus on him before me" ... 

 

Well, let's just say that we are so looking forward to celebrating our upcoming 30th anniversary.  God has brought us so much deeper into what we both believe is His design for our marriage -- 

our oneness in Jesus Christ -- our ministry for others.  And neither of us would change any of our experiences for where we are today.  Sure there's things we wish we hadn't gone through ... 

but every moment of the past 30 years has brought us to where we are today --- 

and we are exactly where God wants each of us to be.

Marriage is the most wonderful journey -- when God is the center and your spouse is second.

Like I've said before, I don't know why this has been my topic for several posts.  But I'm sure thankful that God laid this on my heart ... and now I pray that our past experience will be the tool that someone else may need.  We never really know how we may be an inspiration or encouragement to someone else.

And Dan & I hope that our story may be a light to others.