Happy 8th Anniversary, Dave!

On August 13, 2014, Dave drove from Ohio to Alabama (getting a speeding ticket along the way!) to ask me to marry him.

When he proposed, he gave me two gifts. The first, of course, was the ring. The second was a home study kit to help me repay tens of thousands of dollars of student debt I accrued while
trying to “do it all” in college. I know—he’s super romantic.

The kit contained a set of DVD courses with a companion workbook, a memoir from the financial guru who compiled the course, various worksheets, and a progress chart. The course was designed to help people like me repay debt, build savings, and ultimately attain financial security. I thought I knew enough about money already, but I didn’t yet possess the self-control to manage my money well, nor did I have a grasp on the big financial picture. I couldn’t be successful with money because I didn’t even know where to begin.

We wasted no time in getting started. Dave and I watched the videos together and decided we were going to change our lives forever—together. We created budgets (separate budgets because we were not married yet and he lived six hundred miles away), discussed goals, held each other accountable, and noted every transaction during our regular check-ins. We cut our spending and accounted for every penny, and I threw every spare dollar at my student loans. I picked up extra shifts at my part-time jobs, knowing that every dollar had a purpose. Suddenly, it all felt worth it. And every month, I’d submit extra payments to my online loan repayment service. The loan balance continued to fall. And we did it! My last loan was repaid three months before our wedding, and we started our marriage debt-free!

I’m saying this not to brag but to make an important point.

You can’t meet goals if you do not have objective steps to attain them. The program we used has specific steps for each part of the financial journey. They offer clear dos and don’ts for healthy money habits. The rules are strict, but they make sense, and they work! And they help transform your life so financial wellness becomes second nature. Our kids likely will never experience their mom’s embarrassing financial faux pas. They’ll have healthy models of money management from the beginning. We’ve changed our family’s future by working on these habits for more than seven years.

The same principles apply to our spiritual lives. There are specific steps we take to build good prayer habits, avoid sinful habits, develop virtue, and reorient our lives toward Heaven. In The Prayer Book for Tired Parents, we show you where and how to start, and you’ll be able to use this book to make a concrete plan for cultivating a strong prayer life for your family.

But that’s not to say that simply doing what we tell you to do is going to make you a saint. No, not at all.

The primary reason you are doing this is to grow in your love of God: to know Him more, to love Him more, and to serve Him more. How can we say we love God if we never spend time with Him in prayer? How can we say we love God if we don’t give ourselves entirely to Him?

What we share in this book will help open your heart to God’s graces in ways you might never have known possible and will show you how to develop and deepen your relationship with God. These are the tried-and-true devotions and practices that have made countless saints over the past two thousand years. This book is meant to be used daily as a means of guidance and fortification. It is like a springboard for infusing prayer into every part of your day, so your family can truly become saints. We offer guidance on building habits of prayer as well as adjusting routines to make more room for God.

Nine years ago, when Dave proposed, we had no idea he was laying the foundation for not just an overhaul of financial habits, but of our prayer life as well. We had no idea he was setting the stage for us to transform our family forever. And we had no idea the graces we’d receive in the process.

Our prayer for you, fellow parents, is that you too will courageously step forward in faith and take on the difficult (but totally doable) task of changing your life for the sake of becoming holy.

Know that Dave and I are with you every step of the way!

A portion of this article is excerpted from “The Prayer Book for Tired Parents: Practical Ways to Grow in Love of God and Get Your Family to Heaven” (c) 2022 David and Debbie Cowden. Please only reproduce with permission.