When I first got married, the gentleman that married us told us to pray together as a couple morning and night. This is really great advice. I have no doubt that any couple in the world that is humble enough to kneel and take 5 minutes to pray together morning and night will be much less likely to run into the pitfalls of marriage that many encounter. No one could convince me otherwise, even if there was no God, this is great advice.
That being said, early on we decided that she would pray at night and I would pray in the morning. This arrangement went on for many wonderful years. Probably eight or more. We prayed and still do about nine of every 10 nights. We ran into problems, however, because we were praying maybe one of every 10 mornings, if that. But our family was still doing great because Dais was praying for us as a couple every night. The quality of her prayer covered us.
She began to raise a concern with the prayer situation maybe four years into the marriage saying, "but you NEVER pray for us as a couple" and I would say in a very loving manner "but Daisy, we made a decision... a great decision...many years ago, for you to pray at night and me in the morning. I can't help it if you don't wake up when I leave for work."
So this goes on for another four years before she has had enough.
It ended up being a brutal negotiation. I was willing to pray on weekend nights and weekday mornings. Had we totally abandoned the idea of praying in the mornings? If we had, I was not about to give up on keeping them. I'd tell you the back and forth was a month if it was five minutes long.
Finally, I wrote down on a piece of paper and slid across the table what I was willing to do. She took the paper, ripped it in two, and stormed out of the room. She was stuck on "every other day". It had to be fair she said.
So like a used car salesman, I coaxed her back in the room, put my loving arms around her, and told her I would relent. I would totally give in. She could pray on odd days and I would pray on even days. The smile on her face told me it was done. We soon consummated this decision the only way we knew how.
Things went well for a few weeks after that until... da dun dah.... she realized why I gave in to her. The seven months of the year when an odd day (31st) is followed by an odd day (1st). You should have seen the look on her face. It was so beautiful.
So seven times a year she has to pray on consecutive nights. Do I rub it in that I have superior negotiation skills? I do. Was last night the first half of one of these consecutive odd nights? It was.
But the best part is we have been blessed with a Leap Day this year, an ODD Leap Day.
Most years, on the last day of February, there I am praying for our family, bumbling and stumbling, trying to find the right words to bless our union. But this year, oh it's different.
Welcome February 29th. I think now we are going to be ok.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
first--dork!
next--all those methods suck. its simple: you take turns. and if you've gone so long that you can't remember then you rock-paper-scissor.
Shayne, I agree. Every couple needs a fool-proof system. For our method, I pray if I'm still awake. So I probably pray about once or twice a week. It has seemed to work pretty well so far. I just wish I knew what Christian prayed about.
I am just impressed that you pray every night & some mornings. That is the real triumph.
Because Bonnie based her experience off of her parents, I received odd days and she had even right from the start. She won that round. But don't worry, on the double odd days, I will generally offer a mediocre to bad prayer, just so she knows that I'll do it, but I don't have to like it.
Well done, Shayne, well done.
Shayne, you are a scoundral
Post a Comment