Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Praying The Fruit of the Spirit in Our Marriage

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     I have decided to begin a new marriage series on practicing, and praying, The Fruit of the Spirit in our marriage. I have always loved these verses from Galatians, and I thought that the concept of applying these "fruits" to our marriage would be beneficial. So let's begin with the first one...love. How well are you loving your husband? Remeber back in the dating and newlywed days when we were so purposeful and eager to demonstrate love to our men? Well, that eagerness should still be the same whether you have been married for 10 days, or 10 years. As I said in my marriage post last week, I have come to the conclusion that for me, my greatest desire in my marriage is to love Jeff as deeply and unconditionally as Christ loves me. It's a love that is unfading and unending, and most definiely should not be based on our feelings. Us women can be very emotional, and if your like me, those emotions can differ from day to day. I cannot possibly love Jeff the way I am called to if I rely solely on the way I feel. Some days I may be cranky, some days I may feel down, and other days I may be the happiest woman in the world. (Gotta love those hormones, girls ;)  The only way I will truly be able to love Jeff with an agape kind of love, is to keep my eyes on Jesus and rely on His strength and wisdom daily. Notice I said daily. If we are not surrending our marriage to Jesus daily and denying ourselves, then we cannot even begin to focus on our spouse and meeting their needs first.  So, with all that being said, I want to challenge you to come up with some creative ways to show your husband love. Maybe it's cooking his favorite meal, writing him a love note, surprising him with a special date night, or simply getting on your knees and praying with him according to his needs. Let's be the wives we are called to be and love our men well!


Lord, I come to you now and ask that you would give me the wisdom to know how to love Jeff well. He is one of the greatest gifts you have ever given me, and I am so grateful. Please love Jeff through me, and may he see You, sweet Jesus, in me. I surrender our marriage to you and boldly ask that you would use us to your glory. Thank you for your deep and unfailing love. You are so good. 

23 comments:

  1. Such a great idea to do a series on prayer. Its such a powerful, if not the most powerful, in moving our Creator's hands.

    I'm also trying to make a difference in my corner of the web at www.fanta4two.com and will follow you so that I dont miss any of these prayer posts.

    Thanks for allowing yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit and taking the initiative to do this!

    Patty

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  2. Patty,
    Thank you so much for your kind comment. I will be checking out your blog as well. So nice to meet you!

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  3. Wow! This is exactly what I needed to hear today :) "I cannot possibly love Jeff the way I am called to if I rely solely on the way I feel." You are SOOO right! Thank you for the reminder that I cant do this on my own (seems like I have to learn that lesson over and over again!) I am your newest follower :)

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  4. Veronica,
    Thank you so much for your kind words. They are more encouraging than you will ever know. I'm so glad you are following along on this crazy, beautiful journey with me! :)

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  5. Hi Ashley,

    Wonderful prayer...had to chuckle as your hormones comment really resonated with me...yes, only by His grace and prayer can I love my husband well...great post! Nice to meet you via LL's blog as I linked up behind you.

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  6. Ashley, I prayed your prayer, only I substituted my husband’s name ;-)
    Good advice on marriage! I’ll take it.

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  7. I've been thinking a lot lately about how I can show my hubby more love and respect. Thanks for the post!

    Monica
    http://happyandblessedhome.blogspot.com/

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  8. I love this concept of applying the fruit of the Spirit to marriage (which when you come to think of it makes sense as we are to apply these things to our lives). Great post.

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  9. Such wonderful wisdom coming from such a lovely young lady! You are an inspiration. We have been married for 45 years this May, both still much in love with each other! Love this idea of praying each day for the fruit of the Spirit to abound in our marriage. We are never to old to learn something new, so starting today I will add this to my prayer journal page for each day! Thanks so much! New to your blog and starting following today!

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  10. Gen,
    Thank you so much for you kind comment. I'm so glad you enjoyed the post, and decided to follow along with me!

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  11. My husband and I pray together. To me it is more intimate in many was than s*x. It's a true bonding of our souls. We've been married 28 years this month. Love my man!

    http://theemptynestexpress.com

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  12. Ashley...what a great verse to use in loving your husband. We need to be intentional in demonstrating our love to our husbands the way Christ loves us. Thank you for sharing this at WJIM.

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  13. Thank you, Ashley for sharing at 'EOA' Wednesday. I love the Galatians passage, and I love your prayer. We must surrender every day! Thank you for helping us, Lord!

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  14. Love this -- so important to be loving and praying for our husbands. BTW, did you paint that picture? It's is so beautiful!

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  15. Jen,
    No, I did not paint the picture. (I wish I could say I did. Mine would be more of a 2nd grade version! Haha!)I just did a google image search on The Fruit of The Spirit, and picked this image. Thank you so much for stopping by. We met at the Blog Party in April, and I have been enjoying your site and link-up. Be blessed!

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  16. love this

    come say hi over at nichollvincent.blogspot.com

    have a wonderful day!

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  17. Joining you in praying for our husbands! Thank you for sharing.

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  18. so true, always keeping in mind it's not about 'how I am feeling!" why do us girls have such a problem with this? ugh! I love the whole praying the 'fruit of the spirit verses in galations over my marriage. I will, me too (smile)

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  19. I am stopping by from the Alabaster Jar link up. I really enjoyed reading your blog. It was just what I needed this week! Thanks for being a wife we can model after. Let us stay connected deloranow.blogspot.com

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  20. Great post. On Thursday, I wrote 50 Reasons I Love You and made it into my hubby's birthday card. He turned 50 on Thursday. After 28 years of marriage, it wasn't that hard. I'm posting it next Monday, Apr 8

    Kerry
    http://HowToHomeschoolMyChild.com

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