Not Tonight, Honey

I just knew we'd pray together every day. Uh … right.
by Rachael Phillips

"Why can't he pray with me?" Like my two year old, I bawled and stuck out my lower lip. "Maybe I'll just let Steve pray for himself."

No lightning bolt zapped me.

While my children watched Big Bird, I grabbed the semi-quiet like an oxygen mask. A steaming cup of tea soothed my raging soul. God pulled up a chair. (It would have been nice if he'd brought coffee cake, but he knew I was dieting.)

God didn't say anything. He just sat with me.

Finally, I sighed. "I'm sorry, Lord." I steeled myself to say the impossible: "If Steve never prays with me or for me, I will pray for him."

Nothing changed.

Except me. Gradually I focused prayer energy on praising Jesus, not nuking my husband.

Weeks later, our children slept as we drove. Steve and Annie Chapman's song about praying together, "Circle of Two," floated softly over the radio.

"Let's do it." Steve turned to me. "Let's pray together every day!"

Brilliant idea! I felt a simultaneous urge to kiss and strangle him. Instead, I said, "I'd really like that."

I had given up. The Holy Spirit had not. In a moment, without seminar, soapbox, or seraphim—and especially without Scriptures quoted by me—God had changed Steve's mind.

Thank You, Lord.

No longer morning or night people, Steve and I were mostly tired. But we decided to pray together in bed every morning.

More than 20 years later, we still begin each day with prayer for each other, our married children and grandchildren.

Instead of blowing us apart, the pressures of every marriage season have sent us into each other's arms—and God's. Even life stresses can bless us if we take them to God together.

© 2008 Riverside Chapel Seventh-day Adventist Church