Do you pray with your spouse?

After 15 years, do you know what stands out in my mind most about my wedding night? Nope, not the food. Not the sheets. Not even the I-can't-believe-my-parents-really-let-me-do-this feeling that I was married (we were 18!)! I remember something even more intimate than what went on in our hotel room. I remember that for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Adam Steck, we prayed together.

My mom prayed with me almost every night as a kid. We didn't do many things "traditionally" or even routinely, for that just isn't the personality of my parents. But on more occasions than not, my day ended with my mom sitting on the side of my bed, with the lights out, thanking God for the day and praying for the needs tomorrow would bring. It was enough to leave an impression on my heart of something I'd like to continue beyond my parents' home. So when my wedding day came along, you know what I did? I grabbed my new husband's hand and said, "Will you pray with me?"

I didn't know it then, but that 5 word question, scared the pajeebers out of Adam. He was not expecting, nor was ready for the responsibility that question brought. He did though, graciously take my hand and without sweaty palms or shaky fingers, he prayed with me. I don't remember what we said, but I remember connecting our hearts that night. 

I don't have a Wile E. Coyote kind of testimony where I continuously ran off the cliff and God saved me, turned my life around and set me in the opposite direction. I have a story where God intervened because of prayer. We were 2 crazy in love teenagers who met at 16 and got married 2 months after high school graduation. Bless my Mom & Dad's heart, right?! Everyone thought we were crazy. We thought we were so grown up. God, in His Mercy and Grace, did not destroy us, but allowed us to mature while living with the natural consequences our bad decisions created! 

What started out of a childhood habit at some point had to grow into an intentional action or it would never last. That first year of marriage, we were in college full-time and working part-time to pay these letters that kept showing up in our mailbox. So things didn't "just happen". They still don't. Praying together means we both have to be in bed at the same time, awake. 

But, to end the day, we chose then and still choose now, to intertwine our fingers together, bow our heads and pray to the God above as one heart before Him. Help us. Help us love one another as you love us. Help us forgive. Provide for us. Show us the next step. Guess what... He did. He has. He will again. I have no other explanation except by His Grace do Adam and I still stand together.

Do you pray with your spouse? Do you realize the power, the protection that comes around you when you and your spouse join hands, unite hearts and humbly bow before the throne of God Almighty? It is powerful! It is how we move mountains! And without it, it is how we crumble. We think we can handle it. But we can't. The pressures, temptations and snares are too great for us alone. They require divine intervention daily, even nightly while lying on our beds.

"When I shut up the Heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:13-14

Adam was scared to death when I took his hand and asked him to pray with me. You may be scared too. I urge you, take the first step. It's never too late to begin a habit of praying with your spouse. You'll never regret it.

Listen HERE for Casting Crowns "What if his people prayed."

Putting it In Our Own Words,

~Julie