Stronger Unity

In this day and age, it is easy to lose sight of those things which are so important to living a Godly life. When Dave and I got married, I would always get up with him and we would pray together before he left for work. He was in the USAF at the time, so his hours were pretty random. Sometimes he would have to leave the house as early as 4 am, and other times he would be at home until noon! Either way, I was faithful in getting up and spending time with him before he left. (This was really not that hard to do. I usually went back to bed after he was gone! Ahhh, the easy life before kids!)
After a while, those times started getting fewer and fewer. I think it had something to do with having more and more kids. Whatever the reason, we got out of the habit of our mornings spent together before God.
We still had our own personal quiet times, we began having family worship and Bible times, and have always been faithful to pray with the kids before bed, but times spent with God as a couple were not as frequent as they should have been.
A few weeks ago, I was talking to a very Godly woman, and she told me about something that she and her husband have been doing for years. Each night before bed, they spend time praying together. Not necessarily a long time every night, but they are faithful to end their day together in communion with their Heavenly Father. Even if her husband is out of town or knows that he will be home late, he calls her and they pray over the phone before she goes to bed. She said that this has had a wonderful impact on their marriage.
At our last care group ladies meeting, I felt that God would have me challenge the ladies of our group to begin to pray each night with their husbands, ending their day together before God. Up until then, I had not been practicing this myself, and I knew that in order to not become a hypocrite, I would also need to take up the challenge!
So far, we have not missed a night praying together. I will confess that I am not always 100% alert for these times, but Dave has been faithful in leading us, and I feel like we are on our way to making the unity of our marriage even stronger!
The Bible says that we are not to let the sun go down on our anger. I think that it is so easy to fail here particularly within a marriage. I know that Dave and I don't like to have disagreements in front of the kids, so we usually save our complaints until after they are asleep. This puts us at a risk of being upset at each other just as we are getting ready to go to bed. You know, it's almost impossible to go to sleep angry with the person that you are praying with just before you go to sleep!
So...I want to issue a challenge to all the wives reading this. Begin to pray each night with your husbands before you go to bed. This is a wonderful way to build up the unity between you and your husband. I would love to hear from those who are willing to take me up on this challenge!
"A threefold cord is not quickly broken".