There’s a certain frustration that sometimes comes with prayer. We wisely decide to quit trying to change our spouses and instead pray for them and our marriages. This is all good, but like anything in life, it can become contaminated.

I’ve been a part of a prayer group of women who meet regularly to pray for ourselves, our spouses and our marriages. It’s been an uplifting, encouraging, and helpful thing. We’ve seen many answers and beginnings of answers to our prayers—not just in our spouses but in ourselves as well. 

But there’s something I’ve noticed in my friend’s prayers, as well as, my own—sometimes we feel like God is speaking to us about what our spouse should be doing.

And maybe God is and maybe God isn’t. But it’s what we do with that new thought that creates the dilemma.

• If we choose to surrender this area of insight over to our Lord, then we stay on track and God is able to do mighty things through our submission and faith in Him.
• If we choose to take that insight on as our own project—self-righteously trying to convict our husbands into doing or becoming what we see as their “potential,” then we invite the contamination into the process. Then it becomes a muddy maze of mess-pectations!

Have you encountered this in your prayer life?

What have you done to adjust your thoughts and expectations? 

“Be still and know that I am God …” -Psalm 46:10a (NIV)

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” -Romans 12:2 (NIV) 

 Photo by Ada Be

Linking up with – NOBH, Momma Notes, Marriage Mondays, Marriage Moments Monday, Making Your Home Sing Monday, Living Proverbs 31, Playdates with God and Marriage Mondays