Prayer - I've been thinking. . . .

I was once counselled by a Stake President to say a personal prayer for 7 minutes a day for a week. Now, that didn't seem so bad until I tried it. I've done full sincere prayers before, but after a few days, finding 7 minutes of stuff got more and more challenging. Part of his counsel included setting a timer to make sure it lasted long enough (kinda funny huh). Now part of the reason, he said, was that when you pray for the full 7 minutes a day, it gets you down to the real stuff not just the regular patterned surface stuff. I can say that it gave me a deeper appreciation for the life around me, the people around me, and for all that I've been given.
I was thinking, a-ha, I've got it. I gained deeper meaning and gained deeper appreciation. That's what he wanted me to learn. I scored. Well. . . . . that wasn't the end of the learning.

When the next appointment came around I reported of the success of the week of deep prayer, which I ended up doing for much longer. He was pleased about the growth that I had gained. But he was setting me up for something else, he then assigned me to pray for a whole 7 minutes for and behalf of my husband. Now that one really got me. Quite frankly, I was angry with the Stake President because I was not in a positive mind-frame to be thinking about my husband in any way like that and certainly not interested in the least about praying FOR him. No. . . . No. No. No. NO! If I'm praying for anyone, it's for me. Because I've got so much to learn and grow and need the divine intervention for. Certainly I didn't want to waste my time praying for my spouse. no. nah. I'm not doing it.

Well. . . . . . . I relented and tried it.

I discovered that if I disconnected myself from our relationship (long disconnect) and thought of him solely as a child of God, a son of God, I could think of things to pray for and in-be-half of him. Of course, I started out with all the surface stuff. Ya know, bless him at work so he can do a good job; bless him to be a good dad, blah blah blah. Then, I started thinking about him more and got to thinking about what he really may need as a child of God. He certainly needed a wife who was understanding (which I'm not so good at), he needed to feel love from His Heavenly Father, he needed to have the ability to discern the promptings of the Holy Ghost, he needed to gain a greater knowledge of the scriptures, he needed to gain a better understanding of his duties as a husband and father (the heavy stuff), and so on and so on. . . . . .After a couple days of this, then I got to thinking . . . .what would Jesus pray for him, if he were going to pray for and in-behalf of him - what would that prayer be like? . . .then the subject matter got deeper and closer to pure thoughts.
Sadly to say I didn't try it long enough because a week wasn't enough to change much of anything that I could tell and I gave up. I wonder if a commitment of let's say a month, well that may be way too much to chew all at once, especially for the way I've been feeling towards him again lately. Maybe a month of a sincere thought out prayer for a couple minutes a day for a month. Hum. I'll have to give it some more thought. I don't know. Maybe I'll try it another month, this month I don't like him very much. . . . .oh, no . . . . that means I probably need to pray for him even more because of all the garbage feelings I have towards him. mmmmmmmmmmmmm. . . . . .I don't know if I could stay on my knees long enough, (ya know, the old addage. . . .stay on your knees until you feel like praying. . . .I just don't know about that today)