The 7th Day of Christmas with Jennifer Smith–Unveiled Wife
Welcome to the 7th annual 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!!!
12 Days.
12 friends guest posting sharing a Christmas idea, recipe or favorite with you.
12 great giveaways for you to enter along with one GRAND PRIZE for someone who comments to enter all 12 days!!
Please join me in welcoming Jennifer Smith of the Unveiled Wife on this 7th Day of Christmas. Jennifer began UnveiledWife.com, a web-based ministry for wives, in 
March 2011. She publishes weekly marriage articles including encouragements, devotions, and prayers of the day. She authored The Unveiled Wife, Wife After God, and 31 Prayers For My Husband. Jennifer is devoted to encouraging wives all around the world to develop God-centered marriages.
Now, here’s Jennifer….
The holiday season is usually bustling with families drawing close together to spend quality time with one another. Families flock the shops for gifts, hand-in-hand they search for the perfect tree, and they nestle side by side at coffee shops with peppermint lattes and hot cocoa.
Ever since I was a little girl I have done this with my family and as I am out and about I see others enjoying Christmas too.
When I became a wife I had the privilege of sharing this joy with my husband. Although we encountered hardships throughout the year, we were good at intentionally making Christmas memorable. By our third Christmas, the burdens mounted so high, it was a struggle to embrace the cheerfulness of the holiday season. In fact, I escaped into fantasyland by using up all my free time to read the Twilight trilogy.
For three weeks I grew fascinated with the love story of Edward and Bella, desiring a strong love in my own life, convincing myself that my husband was not good enough. My husband sat next to me as I flipped the page of my books. I checked out of my reality and dived into a sea of discontentment. The more I read, the more unsatisfied I became with my marriage. The more I read, the more I avoided my relationship with God as well. My heart was turning hard against those I once loved, dwelling on the potential of what I could have if I chose to leave my husband.
I am sharing this with you because I know the pain that comes with marriage. I know how burdens can pile so high that a wife would rather escape, even if it is just into fantasy. I know how a whole holiday season can fly by without any intentional memories built because it is uncomfortable and sorrow-filled. I also know I am not the only one who has dealt with this, and I don’t want any wife to endure this type of isolation this Christmas!
The greatest thing that saved my marriage and transformed my heart was my husband’s willingness to pray for us. Even when I hard-heartedly refused, my husband was faithful. He prayed for us every night and asked God to help us. At that time when I isolated myself in books, my husband was unaware of all that I was internalizing, but he surely felt the separation in our relationship. Yet, he prayed.
I believe God hears our prayers and that He wants us to rely on Him. There was no way I would have recognized my sin of lusting in fantasyland without the Holy Spirit convicting my heart. And there was no way my heart would have softened and overcame discontentment without God showing me the purpose of marriage and how He can use our burdens to teach us and ultimately transform us.
This Christmas, no matter what condition your marriage is in, I urge you to pray. Ask God to protect your marriage. Pray for you and pray for your husband. By doing so you will be able to embrace the holiday season and more importantly you will be able to embrace unconditional love for your husband. There is power in prayer!
Here is a prayer for your marriage [click on the image to make it larger]. If you want you can print this out and frame it where you and your husband can view it daily and serve as a reminder for you to pray for your relationship!
Giveaway: Jennifer is giving away a copy of her book 31 Prayers For My Husband: Seeing God Move In His Heart. Enter to win by leaving a prayer in the comments for your marriage and a random winner will be chosen.
Father, my prayer for my marriage is for healing. Help me to focus less on my husbands shortcomings and more on his attributes and help me to stay strong in prayer for him spiritually and for our marriage.
Father, be glorified and magnified in our marriage!!
Lord, put your arm around my shoulders and you hand over my mouth! Welcome into my home – please bless my marriage!
Thank you, Lord, for my wonderfully patient husband. I am so thankful to be his wife.
I’m not married, and honestly not looking for even a boyfriend right now, but I love reading these types of articles so I can tuck them into my heart if the time comes where God sees fit to bring a man into my life.
Father, You created marriage to be a reflection of Your great love for us. Help me to serve my husband and treat him as Your son because he is first Your child. Help us to reflect Your love to others and to be vessels You can bless others through. Thank You for Your faithfulness and love as I remember to keep You in the center of all I do. In Jesus’ precious Name, Amen.
Thank you for your encouragement to pray for my marriage!!
Since I’m single, my prayer is to find a good Christian man.
Heavenly Father,
I thank You that my husband has showed a renewed interest in studying Your Word together with me on a regular basis. I thank You that we are fellowshipping with other couples who are seeking to raise our children in a Godly way, with the help of wiser and more experienced families. I pray Your Spirit will continue to urge my husband to seek You and look to other Godly men for examples of how to be a Godly husband and father.
AMEN.
I pray for a strengthening of our love, hearts that are open to see what needs to change, and better communication.
Father God, You know our needs and I pray You would meet them. How we need you!
I’m not leaving a comment for my marriage. It is over. My non-believer husband left 4 years ago and is living with another woman. No, I would love to gift this book to my daughter who just celebrated the 2nd anniversary of her 2nd marriage. Because she is a believing wife with a seeking husband and 3 children. I think Jennifer’s book would be a blessing in her busy mornings or late evenings. Prayer, in my own words and the words of others, has been so powerful an instrument of hope and change. I’d love to see that unleashed in her life and her family.
Lord, thank you for a short period of unemployment for my husband. It could have been so much worse. I praise you, Jesus!
Lord, I pray that my marriage may become am example for others of your love for us.
Lord, please remind me that you are the center of marriage. Please help to keep our hearts as one and our family strong in your love and understanding. Amen.
Lord, help us to remember to, and be able to, work as a TEAM!
Heavenly Father, Please help us to draw together and not apart during this difficult time. Amen.!
Lord, I pray that you will intervene in our hearts & make us both more like YOU. Only then will our marriage be everything that it’s supposed to be.
Lord, thank you for blessing me with my amazing and wonderful husband for over 15 years. We’ve had ups and downs, but through it all, you’ve been there for us and I thank you each and every day for bringing us together. You’ve blessed us with 2 happy, healthy, amazing boys. Please continue to keep my husband safe while he’s working in Afghanistan and keep the boys and I safe while he’s away. Amen.
Dear Father God, I thank you for bringing my husband into my life over 20 years ago. I thank you for the family and home we have created. Please continue to work in our lives to keep our bond strong and happy. I thank you for the work you have already done in our lives and life up prayers for continued restoration. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.
Lord, may everyone around us see Your Great Love in us as we live out this gift of marriage that You have created in us. May our love for each other spill over into the love we share with others so that they see You in us. Marriage has it’s ups and downs, but with You, O Lord, NOTHING is impossible! Thank You Lord for setting the example for us of Your great love through Jesus Christ! I love You, Lord!
Deb
Dear Abba daddy, please heal and restore our family.
Lord God let our love for one another grow stronger each day..protect and heal us..
Dear Lord, I am thankful that you gave me such a wonderful husband. I know that sometimes we may argue, fuss, and fight, but through it all, you help us through it. Thank you for giving me a husband that helps around the house and gives me nothing to complain about. Please help me be the wife that he deserves and not nag quite so much. Also allow us to talk about important matter without one of us flying off the handle at the other. In your name I pray, Amen.
Father, thank you for my husband. Help us to keep our focus on You and not what is going on around us. Give my husband wisdom in leading our family and praying with me. Open the lines of communication between the two of us. Renew the passion in our lives. Help me Lord to be the wife You know I can be. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.