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  Family - Weekend Effect

Couple Prayer Leads to Family Prayer

Judy & David Cook

(Excerpted from Summer 1992 Matrimony magazine)

We are Judy & David Cook from Chalmette, Louisiana, a little town outside of New Orleans. We made our Marriage Encounter Weekend in Feb. 1988. My (Judy's) sister and her husband had been involved with M. E. for a few years and had been trying to get us to make a Weekend, but David was never ready to go. After reading an article from Matrimony Magazine, he was so touched by the love he read about that he changed his mind and decided to give M. E. a try. Our lives haven't been the same since! The experience of that Weekend has brought us more joy than we could have imagined - like being on our honeymoon every day.

The year after our weekend, we attended our first M.E. Convention. It was held in Tallahassee, Florida. What an experience! The excitement, joy and love in the air was fantastic. One particular presentation really moved us, and that was a talk on couple prayer, the power of praying together. The peace and beauty we found in praying together that day was a whole new wonderful experience, an experience we couldn't wait to share with our daughters, Angie, 9 and Julie, 6. We had always prayed at night as a family, but the prayers, thanksgiving and requests were memorized - rarely changing at all from night to night. We were not always concentrating on what we were saying.

As I (Judy) began explaining to the girls about closing their eyes and seeing Jesus in their midst - eager to listen to and love them - to put His arms around them, Julie whispered, "Oh, I can feel Him already!" I suddenly realized that l could, too, and we immediately began the steps from the sign of the cross, to a memorized prayer (that night it was the Our Father), to silence, so that we could feel Jesus' presence and get ready to talk to Him.

During our silence, David, Julie and I had reached our hands to each other and waited for Angie to do the same, so that we could go on with our prayer. As we waited we began to wonder if she had fallen asleep as she lay there in her bed. Finally we asked her if she was okay and she nodded she was. She had been speaking to God with all her heart, concentrating on His presence. The love that came from two little girls, who usually thought mostly of their own needs, came pouring out. We felt so close that night, not only He was truly there with us.

We have all agreed that this is the best way for us to pray. When the late hour causes us to turn back to a short memorized prayer, we really notice the difference. It means a lot to us as a family to come to God together.

“THE FAMILY THAT PRAYS TOGETHER . . . “

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