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Susan Alexander Yates

Susan Alexander Yates

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How to Pray for Your Marriage (A Peek at My Private Prayer Journal)

by Susan Alexander Yates

Most often when we try to pray, we simply feel overwhelmed!

There are so many needs: in our own families, our friends, our community, etc. We hardly know where to start. We might find ourselves simply saying, “God bless so and so.” Our prayer life feels anemic, and we don’t see a lot of answers to general prayers. 

Two things will help:

1. Learn to pray specifically.

James tells us, “You have not because you ask not.” (James 1:5) John encourages us, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14)

Jesus himself tells us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Mathew 7: 7)

God may not always answer our prayers in the way we’d like or on our timetable, but He always does what is best for us. We are his beloved children. 

The key is over and over he encourages us to ASK.

Green notebook with a family picture on the front and tabs. Susan Alexander Yates' prayer journal.

My well-worn prayer journal. It doesn’t need to be fancy!

2. Organize your prayer life. 

Because I want to practice asking God for things, I found it helpful to create a prayer notebook. It’s divided into 7 sections, one for each day of the week.

To keep from feeling overwhelmed with so many needs I have assigned a theme for each day and a general prayer I pray for John and me and our kids and grandkids. I have additional notes for each day of the week. These are always evolving. Sundays my notebook is reserved for praise. It’s the Sabbath, and I want to focus on God rather than people. The Sunday section is blank. Yes, blank. This forces me to be creative in my praise.  

Tuesday’s prayer theme is marriage. 

Here’s my prayer for my marriage and for those of my kids and grandkids:

Dear Father,

You have called us into marriage. It was your creation that you might be glorified. Lord, please be protecting our unions.

Give to each of us:

  • Sweetness of speech
  • A desire to work through struggles and stick to it when we are tempted to flee
  • Help in really listening and considering the other’s view and not presuming; we want good communication
  • Eyes only for each other
  • The discipline to quickly forgive and to ask for forgiveness
  • A sense of how we are fitting together — two being better than one
  • Growing thankfulness for one another
  • The discipline and time to pray together
  • More spontaneous laughter
  • Growing tenderness

Deliver us from:

  • Taking one another for granted
  • Failing to appreciate or to build up
  • Those who would tear apart our marriages
  • Wandering eyes
  • Emotional divorce

Give us eyes to recognize how the enemy might try to tear us apart. 

Please be adding layers and layers of glue into our unions and melting us into oneness.

May our marriages glorify YOU. Amen”

I hope this will encourage you to write your own prayer for your marriage. 

John and Susan Yates standing together overlooking the ocean

Still having fun after 52 years of marriage!

Note: This can be adjusted for singles. Single people can pray for their future mates if God should choose for them to marry. Even if they do not feel the call to be married, they can pray for the married members of their family and friends, and for wisdom regarding how to support those marriages.

If you want to see the other specific prayers I pray each day of the week, along with the daily themes, you’ll find them and a lot more in the last chapter of my book Cousin Camp.

Prayer is the one thing at which we cannot fail and it’s the best thing we can do for our family.

Do you keep a prayer journal? Comment below!

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July 28, 2021 · 2 Comments

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  1. Amy Butler says

    September 9, 2021 at 8:28 am

    I organized a prayer journal in 2006 with the 31 days of the month. I included a Stormie Omartian prayer for my husband on each page. I rotate scripture based prayers for my five children with their pictures so they each get prayed over about six times throughout the month. I also included Christmas card pictures of friends and missionaries to pray over.

    Reply
  2. Tonya says

    August 6, 2021 at 5:12 pm

    I enjoy your emails Susan. Thank you! I love you marriage prayer… Some great reminders is things for me to pray for regularly. I keep a journal that contains notes on how God has “spoken” to me through his word and prayer. I also sometimes write out prayers. I’ve also begun using the PrayerMate app which helps me keep track of many things/people I want to pray for regularly. It’s been a helpful tool.

    Reply

Hello, I’m Susan.

Susan Alexander Yates

I’m a wife (of 50 years), mom to five children (including a set of twins), and grandmother to 21 (including a set of quadruplets!). My favorite time of the year is when all my kids and grandkids are together for a week of “cousins and family camp” in the foothills of the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia.

Read more…

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Hiking on the AT with Charley Dog. ❤ God's been Hiking on the AT with Charley Dog. ❤  God's been speaking to my heart through nature recently, and I'm blogging about that this week @rootandvinenews. Here's a short excerpt -- link in my bio to read the rest. I hope you can get out in nature this summer!⁣
⁣
Ever so slowly over the past decade God has been opening my eyes and touching my soul in ways I had not expected. For the past 40 years I’ve written books and blogs and spoken throughout the country on topics of parenting, marriage, and faith. These areas have been my primary focus. I still love to speak and write on these themes. ⁣
⁣
Yet more recently our heavenly Father has been awakening within my heart a deep desire to dwell in nature, to really look at His creation, to observe His beauty, to marvel at the things I learn about His creation from twisted roots, fragile flowers, craggy rocks, singing birds, crawly creatures and unusual quiet. Silence. We live in a noisy world, but we were also created for silence. I think of Jesus slipping away in the night to be alone in the hills enjoying the company of His heavenly Father in quiet. Oh, the sweet fragrance of simply being alone together.⁣
⁣
At least once a year we all sing “Joy to the World,” the beautiful Christmas hymn with the familiar refrain, “Let heaven and nature sing.” One winter day on a walk in the woods this hymn came to my mind. I began to think about these words as I looked around a snowy, bare path. Because the birds had flown south there was more silence than in the spring. Focusing on the quiet, I asked God to enable me to hear his voice. There wasn’t a lot to hear but as I concentrated, I heard bare branches squeaking as they rubbed against each other. Wind gusts magnified sounds of creaking and worn-out limbs fell to the ground, bumping against bare rocks with a resounding thud. ⁣
⁣
Read the rest -- link in bio, or go to susanalexanderyates.com/blog
I snapped this picture of a parent watching over h I snapped this picture of a parent watching over her flock! 

It reminds me of Psalm 121…God your Father is watching over you! At this very moment He is watching over you!
I need this reminder often! It can be easy to get I need this reminder often! It can be easy to get caught up in my to-do list: if I check things off I feel good about myself and if not, I don't.⁣
⁣
But my identity is not dependent on my accomplishments. God cares a whole lot more about who I am becoming than about what I'm checking off my list.⁣
⁣
This is just one small point from my blog this week: Help, I Can't Do It All: 4 Faith Principles for Overwhelmed Moms.⁣
⁣
I hope it encourages you! Link in bio or go to susanalexanderyates.com/blog⁣
⁣
PS: this photo is from one of my hiking trips out West. 💚
I loved Julius’s message on Mephibosheth. Here’s a clip! @thegospelcoalition #tgcw22
One of the special things about being at the TGCW2 One of the special things about being at the TGCW22 with over 8K present and more online is the women you meet and old friends you connect with from all walks of life! Here are a few special women. We just listens to a fabulous message from Courtney Doctor with new insights on David. Check it outline!#TGCW22 @thegospelcoalition
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At different times over these years, I’ve felt like a failure, worried over a child, been frustrated with my husband, disappointed in my career, and wondered if anyone else felt like “this.” 

And I’ve realized again and again that I can’t do it all. No one can. 

Looking at Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook doesn’t help. Those people all look so perfect. 

And I’m not. 

What about you? 

Are you feeling defeated, lonely, “less than,” confused, anxious or hopeless? 

Let’s be honest. We can each feel these things no matter what season of life we are in. It’s easy to feel stuck. 

Where do we go for encouragement? How can we find perspective?

This week on the blog I'm sharing 4 Faith Principles for Overwhelmed Moms -- things that will help when you feel like saying, 'HELP! I can't do it all!'

Check it out! Link in bio. 

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So much fun speaking on a panel on “Aging with G So much fun speaking on a panel on “Aging with Grace” with Karen Hodge and Susan Hunt.#tgcw22 @thegospelcoalition

Copyright © 2022 · Susan Alexander Yates · All Rights Reserved
Calligraphy by Jessica Blanchard · Paintings by Christen Yates
Blog and Ask Susan Photo by Natalie Puls Photography · Books Photo by Cambria Elizabeth

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