A lesson I learned...

I learned an important lesson this weekend as a wife, to stop nagging and start praying. As a result of this, Sean got baptized yesterday. He made me such a proud wife for his decision to tell the church he is a Christian and getting baptized is announcement to the world of his decision and commitment to follow God.

Let me tell you the backstory, the day after we got married, my mom gave us two books, the Power of a Praying Wife for me and the Power of a Praying Husband for Sean. The book has 31 days worth of prayer for my husband, each day I read about a specific area of his life and then pray for that area ie work, me, leadership, etc. The most important lesson I learned out of that book is not to continually ask my husband to do something but to lift it up to prayer to God and ask God to take care of my husband in that area I was nagging him about. That area for us was baptism. We believe that after we become a Christian, we get baptized in complete immersion, we get dunked completely in a body of water. Why? Because that is how Jesus was baptized and we follow His example and baptism is done after we become a follower of Christ and is simply an act of obedience to God because He asked. About 1.5 years ago, I started asking Sean about his baptism, why hasn't he gotten baptized? This conversation continued and continued with the only result being hurt and angry feelings. Then I remember the most important lesson I learned from the Power of a Praying Wife book, stop nagging and start praying. I didn't let Sean know that I was praying for this act of obedience, it was simply between me and God. Then last September, Sean marked the baptism box on one of the cards that our church passes out each week. I simply smiled, told him I was proud of his decision and shouted a few thank you God and praise God for His work on my husband's heart to obey him in the act of baptism.

So as a wife, if nagging isn't work and when does nagging ever really work, start praying, it might happen the next day or it might happen a few years later but lift up your husband in prayer and watch God move and act in your husband. The results only are worth lifting up that request to God.
Tomorrow I will share the rest of my weekend, which was the start of two months of being a track widow but it was fab-filled with plenty of friends.





25 comments:

Amanda said...

yea for baptism! yea for praying! yea for God's faithfulness!

CALLIE said...

Love this. Congratulations to to Sean.

The Pink Growl said...

How exciting! Congrats!

Leah said...

love this so much. just reminds me what i need to be doing for my husband. congratulations to your husband, there was a feast in heaven on that day!

Discovery Street said...

What a great testimony of prayer!

Lauren said...

how awesome! I definitely needed this reminder...prayer is so much more effective than continuous nagging!

Bev said...

AMAZING post to be reading on this fine monday morning!!! congrats to you both!!

the power of prayer is out of control, unexplainable!!! xo, Bev

Emily said...

I read that book a while ago, and I'm thinking maybe its time to read it again. Congratulations to you and your husband! Thanks for sharing your story and reminding me of such an important lesson :)

emi said...

this is so great! congrats! what a good step! XOXO
the well-traveled wife

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Sean and you! Our God is a living god and he answers prayers!!!

Jessica Jensen said...

Just got that booked a few days ago. :) Excited to start reading!

Whitney from Washington said...

This is awesome! What a blessing and such a great lesson - thank you for sharing. I'll definitely have to check out the book - it sounds wonderful!

Darby Hawley said...

Love love love this!! That is a great book and this is a powerful story of how the Lord DOES answer prayer!!!!

Courtney Kassner said...

Love this! Thanks so much for sharing! I actually have that book on my Amazon wishlist so it sounds like I need to go ahead and order it!

Susannah said...

Congratulations to your husband. This post brought tears to my eyes as I think about how often I don't pray about things. Thank you for the wonderful reminder.

Kate @ Daffodils said...

Congrats Sean! What an amazing moment for your family.

Erica Jacquline said...

Meg, I really liked this post and your reflection.

http://ericajtsunshine.blogspot.com/

Allison said...

Amen friend! Congrats to your husband! :)

AJK said...

Congrats! I think we could all use a reminder to keep the husband nagging to a minimum!

Unknown said...

wow! what a wonderful lesson for us all. i will definitely have to work on implementing this lesson into my life this week! great post!

The Unlikely Runner said...

This is so amazing! Way to go Sean. And what a wonderful blessing this is to you as a wife and as a couple. Praise God for his decision!

Unknown said...

This is such a great reminder. My husband converted a few years ago, but I sometimes feel like he has never embraced Jesus the way I wish he would. Last week he oh so causally decided to go on a men's retreat, which is SOOOO out of character. I couldn't be more excited. The nagging never gets you as far as the prayer will.

Carol {Everyday Delights} said...

How fantastic!!! Congrats to Sean! What a great blessing!

Kasey Lynne said...

My mother in law gave both Sam and I those books for our wedding and I have yet to read it. Thank you for the reminder to DO IT. I am so happy that Sean took that step in being obedient to the Lord.

Hilary said...

I definitely have to remember this on the daily! I can be such a nag.