Month: July 2021

Day 13

Pray for Work

We always split up Work life and Personal Life, but the truth is we have only one thing called “LIFE”. We have been told that it’s about balancing both. When we hear the word balancing I see a picture of me, juggling everything, trying to keep things on the air. What a stress! it’s like being a clown wearing a fake smile outside and crying inside worrying about all the juggling.
If balancing is all about juggling how will we even enjoy life?
It’s about setting limits, where we ought to be sincere at work and sincere to family without becoming lazy or stretchy at work nor become a workaholic and put all the family burden on the spouse. While I still have to work on many aspects of “Enjoying fullness of life”. One thing I learnt is to keep track of time
and become a little faster at work and at home and chuck off some unwanted time stealers.
I started off with a chart that I prepared to check what all am I doing each day and where are the time stealers. It made me clear, on what all am I taking more time. Not to forget that I was not active on social media when I calculated
the time even without social media we have other time stealers too, for example, not setting up time limit to tasks and stretching our way into it is the biggest time stealer. The below are the five main things I decided.
– Learning to say ‘No’ to unwanted tasks or non-feasible deadlines.
– Up-skilling or Learning continuously so that the job is secure.
– Delegating work in office with colleagues and openly sharing concerns.
– Planning household work day before including individual steps to avoid stress.
– Dividing weekend work and spreading it across the whole week so that weekend can be peaceful.
– Having a time for relaxation and peace in the morning when I read Bible and pray.

Let’s pray!

For You

• Lord! I pray for my work, be it house hold work or professional work, may I be planted in the place you want me to be. Guide me towards your will,
  to move towards your will. May I make my work(official/homemaking) related decisions under your guidance. I declare that your grace that is new each morning will strengthen me and you will bless the work of my hands and make it successful!
• Lord! I pray that you help me plan each day well and commit my plans to you. Even if I plan each day may your plans supersede them all. Teach me to be prudent, vigilant and wise in all the plans that I make.
• Lord! I pray that I sharpen my skill each day in whatever my hands find to do. Help me to give excellent results. May I never worry about jealous people nor become jealous of others. I trust in you for all the growth in my career, you are the lifter of my head.
• Lord! My I never wait for someone to push me to do something. I pray that I learn to be a diligent worker and not a lousy worker. May I be self motivated and God-confident in everything my hands find to do.
• Lord! Teach me ways to enjoy what I do, even the things that are boring. Anoint me with wisdom and creativity that is needed for me to think differently and always focus on the solutions.

For your Husband

• Lord! I pray that all the stress that my husband goes through at work and the constant stress that he feels being in a position of bread winner be cast on you. May he take up the responsibility of being the bread winner without being stressed about it. I pray that you will give him the wisdom in making the right decisions in earning and spending the resources.
• Lord! I pronounce success over his work and I pray that he sets a good example to his superiors and sub-ordinates. May he work
  with kindness, humility and excellence. May he never play the blame-game but be a problem solver and a peace maker.
• Lord! I pray that you lift him up in due time and bless him according to your riches and glory. I pray that my husband waits for your will to unfold.
• Lord! I pray that my husband makes his career decisions only after hearing from you. Teach my husband to wait upon you, wait for you and I pray that my husband talks with me about his work burden and painful situation he goes through at work.
• Lord! May the family time be a time that my husband feels relieved from work stress. May the house provide him peace that relieves him from all the worries of work. I pronounce peace within the premises of the house in Jesus’ name.

Amen!

Today’s Promise: 

The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.

Deuteronomy 28:12

Today’s Command:

Whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night, that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers.

Psalm 1:2,3

Day 12

Pray for Love and Love languages

If you ask the husband and the wife how much they love the other, they’ll say “So much….”. But if you ask how much do you feel loved they may roll their eyes. Most of the times they think they have shown enough love but they fail to see what was actually expected.

Man’s expectation of love:
– Respect: Treating him with respect inside and outside the house
– Kindness: Right tone, Right time, Right Attitude with Right Action
– Listening: Men are actually talkative. They love talking to their wives.
But poor listening or taking the subject into a fight makes them a closed book.
– Care and Attention: Although men will pretend like they don’t like to be taken care nor give attention they will go crazy if they are not attended to.
– Trust & Expression of Trust: Saying words like “I know you would have checked this well”, “I know you mean well for the family”, “I don’t agree with you but I will surely support you, we will never know which decision will work and which will not” and avoiding statements such as “you are ruining the family”, “You are making a lot of mistakes and all the loss is because of you”.
– Physical Intimacy: For a man this is a very important area as his ego is also connected to this. When a woman creates a calm and quiet home a man’s physical intimacy with his wife will not be affected.

Woman’s expectation of love:
– Verbal Expression: The repeated verbal assurances of love will make a woman feel so confident and happy.
– Protection: Woman has an in-built void space of insecurity which has to be fulfilled by the husband by protecting her from physical dangers, abusive words, disrespectful family members and especially ill-treatment from family members. A woman expects man to diplomatically handle this, making it clear to the others that no one is allowed to abuse his wife. Also by protection she never means fight she just wants her husband to politely stop them from harming her. Fair Warning! “When a husband fails to protect his wife all his other love languages will make her feel more insecure”
– Appreciation & Recognition: Appreciating their work with genuine words and recognizing their contribution to the family plays a key role. Giving credit to someone else for the wife’s work, mentioning words like “you did nothing”,”Whatever you do is useless”, without checking properly noticing one rare failure and saying, “You have never been doing this at all. Whenever I see it is like this” these are extremely dangerous things to do or say to the wife.
– Supporting their passion: Women expect their husbands to put efforts in encouraging and helping them achieve their passion.
– Touch & Gestures: Gestures that express love like winking, staring at her face for a long time (with a smile :D), putting arms around her shoulder,
holding her hands etc. can make a woman do anything for her husband.

Let’s pray!

For you

• Lord! I pray that I respect my husband inside and outside the house. May I never say statements that will discourage him. Open my ears to listen to him even when he is saying something that I already know or when he is going off the topic.
• Lord! May I love him with all my heart not with feelings but with deliberate choice to love him. I Pray that my love be expressed well so that my husband is assured of my love.
• Lord! I pray that I forgive him as fast as I can whenever he has failed me. Lord! May I never expect the same forgiveness from him. When my husband fails to forgive me the way I forgave him help me to find joy and peace in you as I have repented and received forgiveness from you.
• Lord! May I trust my husband out of love and trust in you completely that you will turn everything for our family’s good as long as I obey you and love my husband and submit to him trusting in you.
• Lord! May I be a kind-hearted woman. May my affection and the care that I showered on the family members never go waste. I pronounce blessing over all the good seeds sown into the family! May we all reap the good fruits of harvest as a family through you!

For your husband

• Lord! I pray that my husband expresses his love through words, appreciations and warm gestures.
• Lord! I pray that my husband will not waste his money on things that I’m not looking for thinking those objects will bring me happiness. I pray that he will do little things that makes me happy and express his love.
• Lord! I pray that my husband listens to me and listens without assumptions. I pray that you open his eyes to see the love and care for this family behind every advice and concern I bring.
• Lord! I pray that my husband protects me from harmful situations and harmful people. I specially pray for discernment. My my husband put family’s common good as highest priority and not the ego that is kindled by others. May my husband draw a line of protection for me and discern about people who have intentions to bring division into the family.
• Lord! I pray that my husband understands my passion. May we have a healthy discussion on what is expected of him. May my husband help me in sharing the household responsibilities so that my passions are not sacrificed.

Amen!

Today’s Promise: 

Today’s Command:

In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. Matthew 7:12

Pay everyone what you owe him: respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. Romans 13:7,8