Thursday, July 25, 2013

Day 4: Praying with your Spouse

We always hear, "a couple who prays together stays together," but what do you do if you don't know how?

I consider my prayer life pretty healthy. I pray throughout the day, not any rigid schedule, but when I feel I need to or just any time I think of it. I talk too much, even to God. I pray with the kids, of course, and we pray before meals as a family. 

But Kyle and I do not pray together at all. Kyle has only been baptized a little over a year, but it's just something I haven't figured out how to incorporate, and I want to. 

I know that bringing Christ into our relationship even more than He already is, would be beneficial in so many ways. I especially want to get used to praying with hubby before we travel abroad and embark upon a crazy journey in our family. 

What types of prayers or devotions do you do with your spouse? I'm hoping to find something short but beautiful, and maybe work into things that require more thinking and discussion. I'm obviously looking for something Catholic, but I'd love to hear what the rest of you do with your spouses. 


7 comments:

  1. My husband and I pray together every night, and we talk about our private prayer lives with each other. I try to ask him on a weekly basis how I can pray for him (and then try to be prepared to answer the same question from him). Being conscientious about that has made a big difference in our marriage, I would say. (We are reformed Protestants, but I see no reason why these things wouldn't be very helpful to you, too!)

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  2. I think an easy way to stay this is to make the time to pray a portion of Liturgy of the Hours together. We do the morning prayer and if we're doing really well evening. It's not too long and at the end there is a section for intercession and you could always add specific things there. It takes maybe 10 minutes but it is my favorite part of our day.

    Also there is an awesome free app called iBreviary that will even teach you if you've never prayed the office. :)

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    1. I actually looked at the night prayers for liturgy of the hours after another friend recommended it. It seems a little serious for just starting out, even tho I think it's lovely. But I will def have to keep it in mind.

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  3. We found it easier to get started by starting praying with the kids together. Every night when we put them to bed we say a Hail Mary and I believe the end of night prayers (could be wrong). It goes, Protect us Lord while we stay awake. Watch over us while we sleep. That awake we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace.

    We also try to text each other throughout the day with little prayer requests. I feel like it helps us stay connected and reminds me to pray for him throughout the day.

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  4. Honestly, we don't pray together except at church or meals. It's definitely something we need to change but you're not alone! We have the Love Dare devotional book (365 devotions) that we started when we first got married but only made to day 3 (long story). It's pretty good as far as a starting point. We also go to church small group Bible study together so that's something. I don't know if you have anything like that where you go. Fun and another good place to start, if you can, because it's something you do together but not entirely alone so you do kind of get into the habit of it. If that makes sense.

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  5. We are trying to be better about praying together, but it isn't a habit we've ever really had, either. We recently watched Fire Proof, and we started talking again about doing a daily devotion and some prayer time together. We did pray about the house before we put an offer on it, and that was pretty powerful.

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"If you can't say somethin' nice... don't say nothin' at all..." ~Thumper