Praying for Your Husband

When I was younger, my mom and her friends would talk about their marriages and I would hear about them praying for their husbands. I heard them talking about praying for what they wanted to change in their husbands, instead of nagging them. I never really understood that concept until I got married. It works.

In my short marriage I have already seen things that I have been praying about for Isaiah come to pass. One thing I have prayed about since the beginging of our marriage is how messy he is, and how much clutter he had around our apartment. I spent many tears on it, especially when we were first married.He did not want me to clean up his stuff and I stayed so frustrated. It was hard because people would come over and comment on how messy and cluttered it was. I was so embarrassed. I started crying and nagging Isaiah to clean up. FAIL!!! It just got more cluttered. Nothing was better.

Then I started praying for God to change Isaiah's heart and make him want to clean up his clutter. I prayed hard. Amazing thing was God started changing my heart. I started realizing that the clutter was not the problem, my heart attitude was. I was embarrassed for people to see the clutter because of how they thought of me. I don't like clutter, but I realized that I loved my husband and it was part of him. He loved me, even my faults, and I need to love him like that. I also realized that I needed to give my pride in my house to God and not worry about what other people thought.

I was still a little bothered by the clutter because I don't like clutter, but not as bad. God had changed my heart. After my heart got right, guess what? Isaiah started not wanting the clutter and has been working hard to clean it out. He has spent hours on it, and our apartment looks so much better.

There have been many times where I was struggling with something so I started praying for God to work on Isaiah's heart, and of course He worked on mine. I changed my heart and gave it to God. I realized that I can't nag Isaiah into having a heart change about something.

I cannot say I never nag, or I'm perfect at not getting frustrated about things, but I can say that this has changed so many things. I need to remember to pray for him, not nag him. Only God can change him. When I try I just frustrate him.

When I give my frustration to God, I have a peace because I don't feel like I have to fix my husband. I can relax and love him. Then God can work in his heart and change him. Its a much better way to handle things.