Do you ask your man to do all manner of things?
I do.
Poor guy. I ask him to drop by the store and get things:
"Uh, honey? Can you pick up those cookies I like on your way home? You know the ones that have milk chocolate and white chocolate, but not peanuts--cuz peanuts in cookies are seriously gross--and can you get some milk, but not the fat free kind, because it's like water with white food coloring--on second thought, yeah go ahead and get the fat free--it'll offset the four billion calories I'll consume when I eat the entire bag of cookies."
I ask him to open jars I can't open (but only after I have tried to open it one thousand times, because you know I ain't going out like that...until I have to go out like that).
Sometimes I ask him to do something without even opening my mouth. Like the evenings he walks through the door and I hand a cranky baby to him and walk away before he even sets down his stuff. This clearly says, "Can you take this human being away from me while I go find a nice alcoholic beverage to inhale or maybe go for a run? Or perhaps inhale an alcoholic beverage while I go for a run?"
He is so good. He rarely says no. He loves me, and so if I need something, it is important to him that he comes through.
Recently I found out that he does something I've only asked him to do a handful of times, but which apparently he does quite frequently--and that is:
Pray for me.
Friday evening, after we put the kids to bed, we began our nightly ritual. We usually find a comfy place on the couch, scroll for far too long before deciding on what to watch on Netflix, or dig up some dessert and just enjoy quiet time without our five lovely distractions. Anyway, I felt as though we had been missing each other a lot and wanted to catch up before we moved on to Episode 8 of Duck Dynasty.
I was going on about my week and I started talking to him about something he knew I have been struggling with and all of the sudden he cut in and said, "Yeah, I was talking to God about you today and I was like...."
I have no idea what he said after those first words because I started crying. Thick tears gathered at the corners of my eyes and began to roll down my cheeks as he continued to speak. When he finished his thought he looked up to find me wiping my tears away.
"Baby," he said softly, "what happened? What's wrong?"
I explained that even though I know I have asked him now and again to pray for me, I didn't realize that he actually did it. For me to imagine him driving to work and talking to God about me was too much. Prayer is so intimate and for him to talk about me with God was really, well, for lack of a better word, romantic.
And can I just say, that I kinda felt an extra peace in the days leading up to this exchange? When I couldn't find the words or the time to ask God for help with whatever was weighing me down, my husband was doing it for me and I was feeling the effects.
So friend. If you ask your love for help with dinner and the kids and help changing your tire--perhaps you could add asking him to pray for you and then tell him what you need prayers for. You never know, it may be just the thing to add something special to your relationship. I know for me, even after all these years of being married, it certainly did.
Praying for you and your beloved,
Alissa
