Read The Book - Couples Who Pray

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Honestly, can you think of any act more intimate than joining together in a quiet place, holding hands in prayer, and allowing your soul to be bare naked before God? This is our pledge: entering into this act of intimacy on a daily basis with the one person you love more than any other will take you to a level of joy and satisfaction that you simply will not believe.

Your love life will be better, your communication better. Your whole life will be so much better. You'll find yourself beginning every prayer session saying "thank you" for this new life-changing experience.

RESEARCH REVEALED - THEN STEP-BY-STEP

In section two of this book, we'll take you step-by-step through the process of The 40 Day Prayer Challenge - asking you to commit to praying together for a minimum of five minutes a day for forty days.

For the moment, though, we want to reveal some very rare but incredible research on what happens to couples who pray, exemplified through true-life stories about couples just like you who have experienced the ecstasy that we've been talking about.

We start with the two areas of primary interest for men and women - the effect of prayer on lovemaking, addressed in this chapter, and its effect on spousal communication, addressed in the next chapter.

LIFE-CHANGING LOVEMAKING

Since they have been praying together, "Lovemaking is better," say Mari and Bill almost simultaneously.

"It has to be," adds Mari enthusiastically. "It's all about intimacy. I've never felt greater closeness to God than when Bill and I pray."

"When we're in communication with God," adds Bill, "God is in communication with us. And when you submit yourselves to God as a couple, you really see the difference." Mari Falcone - the spirited, redheaded conductor for Donna Summer and many others - and Bill Cantos, Mari's handsome, bearded husband - a composer, singer, and keyboard artist in his own right - had been madly in love and married nearly fifteen years.

Before taking The 40 Day Prayer Challenge, they had occasionally prayed together but not with regularity. "We weren't committed to daily prayer," admits Bill. By the end of the challenge, Mari's excitement was uncontainable: "We couldn't imagine that praying together would be so life changing. What an incredible experience!"

"When you're with God you're being as honest and unguarded as you ever get - you're being the best person you can be," deduces Bill. "And when you're with God together, you experience each other in that intimate, unguarded way. It allows you to have more of a heart for each other..." "And that affects lovemaking," continues Mari. "When you pray, you are vulnerable. A man thinks he always needs to show a woman his strength - that he has it all together - but when I hear Bill asking God for help, I actually feel more secure. As a woman, I know if he asks for God's help, he'll receive it, and that makes me more secure."

"It's interesting...what a man perceives as weakness, the woman sees as strength," interprets Bill.

"Prayer definitely affects lovemaking," reaffirms Mari, as Bill nods in agreement. "The man says 'whoopee,' but the woman sees a different side of her husband that takes lovemaking to a whole other level."

Bill sums up their feelings about The 40 Day Prayer Challenge: "I was surprised by the effect. I thought it would be positive, but never imagined how God would keep on blessing us." "When the forty days were over, we stopped praying for a few days," confesses Mari, "and we noticed our bickering level went back up. During the forty days, bickering had been nonexistent." "Praying together is a daily discipline," concludes Bill. "But who knew that it would be so incredibly life changing," repeats Mari excitedly.

DONNA AND BRUCE ON INTIMACY

"Praying together bonds us," says Donna Summer. "I can't really explain the way it bonds us...it's so deep and healthy...I can't imagine living without it." Donna and her husband, Bruce Sudano - who has a long history in the music business as a singer, songwriter, and producer - have been married for twenty-seven years. Bruce has cowritten some of Donna's most memorable songs. He travels with her as part of the touring show and oversees the day-to-day family business. Donna and Bruce have been praying together from the very beginning of their marriage.

"We were attracted to each other because of our faith," says Bruce. Prayer is the spiritual glue in their marriage. "Telltale signs will creep in, and one of us will say, 'We need to pray,'" he adds. "I don't know how couples survive when they don't have this common ground," continues Donna, "this little room they can slide into and hide away with each other. It is a different thing than sex."

"Praying with your husband lets him into your inner sanctum, and when he can dwell there, he gets to really know you. That's what prayer does for me and my husband: it enables me to know him."

Bruce agrees. "When you are in prayer, you talk to God about things and let your true heart come through...almost subliminal communication between husband and wife." Donna remains in thought about prayer being a special place for a couple. "It's a place of arbitration. I know he doesn't want to go into that place with any sense of untruth. When we enter that space together, we are both putting down our weapons and standing there spiritually and emotionally naked. We say, 'God, this is what I need...this is what I feel insecure about.'" As with most couples, Donna and Bruce have found that joint prayer is such an intimate act that all feelings become transparent. "It is a humbling thing to know if my husband feels insecure about something," says Donna. "As a woman, it makes me want to nurture that place. Vice versa, when he knows something is a deep wound for me, then he doesn't trample on that place in me anymore. He prays for that place in me." "It is so healing and so healthy," they agree in unison.