O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.  ~Pslams 139:1-2

The first thing that attracted me to Gregg was his mind.  Before we met in person, we had known each other online for two years as part of a writers’ group.  This group was supposed to be about writing, but writers like to read what they write, so it was a prolific bunch.  We discussed everything from writing to politics to religion.  After 9-11, it really exploded with talking and writing, and it wasn’t unusual to get 400-500 emails a day.  Gregg and I are very similarly minded when it comes to religion and politics, so we “bonded” intellectually long before we met.  However, that bonding never went beyond the discussions to anything personal simply because I was married.  The first time we ever had a private conversation, I was already separated from my husband.

Gregg is a brilliant man.  He stood out to me in this list of dozens of people because of that intelligence that presented itself with cleverness, humor, and wit.  When he researches something, he does it thoroughly until he becomes nearly an expert on the subject.  Then that acute brain of his retains all of the information he packed into it.  What he knows and the scope of what he knows blows me away on a regular basis, even after all of these years.

But with that intelligence comes dark, brooding times.  He’s a veteran of two wars, and is a highly decorated soldier.  He battles insomnia, dark memories, and has times when his mind just won’t shut down.

I see the same thing in Scott.  I see the insomniac nights, the mind that whirls and whirls, the inability to turn it all off.

Gregg read a book called Healing the Masculine Soul by Gordon Dalbey.  I think he was surprised at just how common his darker thoughts were, how many men experience them, and how it was all laid out in black and white on the page. I think reading that book did more for him than almost anything else in that area in learning about how the male mind works and why, biologically, it works that way.  I think knowing most men have a common ground that way helped him relate to other men on a whole different scale.  It has certainly helped him in his present position, leading hundreds of men who are living in an exhausting, taxing, lonely war zone.

I pray regularly for Gregg.  I pray for peace of mind and gentleness.  I pray for him to get total, dreamless rest.

Please read chapter 7 of The Power of a Praying Wife and consider the following discussion questions.  Comments have been turned off on this post, and answers to questions can be posted at Hallee’s Daily Brew by following this link.

1.  Does your husband frequently experience fear, depression or anxiety?  Explain.

2.  Hebrews 4:12 says: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.  In light of this verse, how would speaking the Word of God over your husband in prayer help soothe his thoughts, ease his mind, remove any lies that he may be believing about himself?

3.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  Looking at the verse above, and seeing how God’s Word is a two-edged soward, write this verse out, inserting your husband’s name and claiming it as his right.

4. Stormie explained how she decided to follow Ephesians 6:11 and “stand against the wiles of the devil” on her husband’s behalf.  She said that “the Bible talks about praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”  She was able to see the results of her prayer in giving her husband peace of mind and winning the battle for the foothold of his mind from the enemy.  Do you believe that God has given you all authority over the enemy on behalf of your husband?  How then would you address the enemy regarding the lies he speaks to your husband’s mind?

5.  Romans 1:21 says: because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Praise is a powerful tool, a healing and restorative tool.  Write out a praise for your husband’s sound mind.

6.  Pray the prayer out loud on page 84 in The Power of a Praying Wife.  Include specifics about your husband’s struggles of the mind.

Hallee

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