Since I have difficult pregnancies, I can’t do nearly as much as I would like around the house and I have to limit errands outside the house because they tend to bring on contractions. That means Logan has even more responsibilities, which is hard because he’s already worried about our baby in utero. He tends to freak out whenever I do too much.

When I was pregnant with our middle son – which was probably our most difficult pregnancy to date – I couldn’t help but feel like the pregnancy would be much less stressful if Logan would just chill out. He didn’t want me to bake if we had too many dirty dishes already, but then he didn’t want me to dirty any more dishes once they were all clean! It was slightly ridiculous – and that was just one example.

Even though I noticed that I had more contractions when I had a busy day, I just wanted Logan to trust me enough to know that I would stop and rest when I felt like my body needed it.

I felt bad complaining (to myself, and in my journal) about Logan so much, because I knew how hard he was working and that he was stressed and all…but he was seriously stressing me out more than the pregnancy at one point.

During this whole frustrating time, I had started to ask St. Joseph for his intercession for Logan. I knew St. Joseph understood Logan and his overwhelming sense of responsibility for his pregnant wife and family. So, I prayed a novena to St. Joseph specifically for Logan to be less stressed and for him to be able to handle everything better throughout the pregnancy.

I kid you not, right after I finished that novena and the day after I journaled about my frustrations with Logan, he suddenly told me how he wouldn’t tell me what to do or not to do anymore during the pregnancy.

And the first thing I said (after I picked my jaw up off the ground) was, “Did you read my journal?” To which he responded no, and I had to laugh because it was like my prayer was answered the next day. Logan said the thought just came to him. So I thanked St. Joseph for his awesome intercession and was very thankful for such a quick answer to prayer.

A few months after our baby was born, our marriage was struggling again. We were arguing a lot and I was feeling really disillusioned. So, I started praying even more for our relationship and for us to communicate better. I thought about talking to Logan about it, but I didn’t want to end up arguing again. So I didn’t bring up anything and just kept praying for us.

A few days later, to my surprise (although I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore) Logan brought up everything. It was obvious that God had answered my prayers again, because we had a really good talk and were able to get on the same page about everything.

Obviously, most of the time our prayers aren’t answered so quickly, but both of those situations reminded me of how important it is to pray for my husband. I know I tend to take Logan for granted, because we’ve been together for what seems like forever, and there always seems to be a million more-pressing prayer intentions for other people and situations.

But I’ve come to see the power of prayer, specifically in my marriage. And really, chances are that nobody else is going to pray for my spouse more than I do, so I shouldn’t slack off. When Logan is at work, probably nobody else is going to think to pray for his protection. When he’s losing his temper with the kids, nobody else is usually there to say a prayer for him to have more patience.

It’s on me. I’m his wife, his other half, and one of the most important things I can do for him is to pray for him. Constantly.