A few weeks ago, my husband and I went to his friend’s house to watch fireworks. As I was wandering around chatting with people, I saw a group of little girls standing under a tree that was in blossom. As the flower petals fell gently around them, the little girls let their imaginations soar. Suddenly, they were transformed from just a bunch of kids to beautiful brides on their wedding day.

Every little girl imagines that special day when she will become a princess and marry the man of her dreams. I was no different. I used to take tulle from my mother’s sewing room and put it on my head. I’d grab some silk flowers (one of my mom’s many hobbies was floral design) and I’d walk slowly down our curved front staircase, pretending that my prince was waiting for me at the bottom.

But I also prayed. From the time I was young, I began to pray for my future husband. I prayed that God would protect him. I prayed that God would begin to speak to his heart if he wasn’t yet a Christian. I prayed that he would be a hard worker and that he would be responsible with money. As I got older and learned more about the world, I prayed that God would keep him from smoking, drinking, drugs, and sexual sin. I also prayed that I would be the first girl that he ever dated and the first girl that he ever kissed.

My husband grew up in a home in which almost everyone smoked and drank. Most of his friends were also smokers, drinkers, and partiers. Some of them did drugs. For some reason, although Dave was exposed to it constantly, he never wanted to do any of those things. At one point, he was in a wedding party with his best friends. As part of the traditional guys’ night out, they took a limo to a strip club. All of his friends piled out, but Dave waited in the car. His own mother tried to get him to go to a strip club one night because, in her opinion, “normal” teenage boys should be out chasing girls. He would have none of it. He thought it was disrespectful to view women that way. He didn’t want to date until he met the right girl, and he believed that sex belonged within the context of marriage.

Why? Dave wasn’t a Christian. There was absolutely NO reason why he shouldn’t do the things that everyone else around him was doing. What stopped him?

I believe that God was listening to a little girl as she knelt beside her bed and prayed for her future husband. I believe that the Holy Spirit put a shield around Dave and protected him. Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not taking the credit here. It’s all God’s doing. He put it in my heart to pray He put that hedge of protection around my future husband.

Several months after we met, Dave gave his heart to Jesus. He has never looked back. A year after he became a Christian, we began to date. Another year passed and we got engaged. Our first kiss (ever, for both of us) took place after he asked me to marry him. Three years into marriage, I still marvel that I am married to the man of my dreams.

Having seen the way that God answered my prayers, I make sure that I take time to pray for my own little girls (one of whom is still in my tummy). I ask God to protect their future husbands. I pray all the same things over their husbands that I prayed over my own. And, as they get older, I will be sure to teach them to pray themselves for their future spouses – specifically for protection and purity.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. … If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-8, 11)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxxFGRLDFX0