Joel Schmidgall - Praying Circles around Your Marriage

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Praise for Praying Circles around Your Marriage

As they tell the story of their familys journey, Joel and Nina Schmidgall give an insiders view into the way theyve drawn circles of prayer for their personal hopes and more. In the best times, those prayers have pushed them forward as a couple and as leaders. In the more difficult times, those prayers have been a backstop for a time of pause and reassessment. Ive known them both for a very long time, and I know their commitment isnt limited to a prayer closet but compels them to the corridors of power and the streets of desperation. This book explains how.

Reggie and Debbie Joiner, founder and CEO of Orange

Michelle and I are so excited for Praying Circles around Your Marriage, and we cant wait for other couples to read this remarkable book. Pastor Joel and Nina Schmidgall have outlined how to create a joyful, prayerful fortress around your most important earthly relationship, keeping in and cultivating what is good and keeping out the things that harm. Their book will bless and inspire married couples, singles contemplating marriage, and pastors and leaders who work with couples. You dont want to miss this very special book!

Joshua and Michelle DuBois, executive director of the White House Faith-based Initiative under President Obama, CNN Commentator, and CEO of Values Partnerships

Okay, true confession: I have a bias against marriage books because I think they make you feel guilty about yours. Good news: this is not that book. I am so glad Joel and Nina Schmidgall wrote this together. Its honest, real, challenging, practical, and vulnerable. It also points you to a surprising solution far too many people ignoreprayer. Youll love this book, and youll love Joel and Nina.

Carey and Toni Nieuwhof, founding pastor of Connexus Church and author of Didnt See It Coming

Your marriage will not only be strengthened, but you will experience great blessing if you practice daily prayer and Bible reading with your spouse.

Former Congressman Joseph R. Pitts, Pennsylvania

Joel and Nina Schmidgall have given us a profound gifta handbook on prayer as the wellspring of biblical marriage. Engaged couples, newlyweds, and those, like us, who have passed the fifty-years-married mark need to read this book!

Dick and Ruth Foth, coauthors of Known: Finding Deep Friendships in a Shallow World

Joel and Nina Schmidgall are two of our heroes in ministry and in marriage. Their commitment to their family and their calling is unmistakable, and they approach both with a sense of responsibility and a sense of humor. This book opens the curtain for the rest of us to learn how prayer is the bedrock of that commitment. Were excited to be able to read and apply these insights to our own marriage.

Geoff and Sherry Surratt, authors of Together: A Guide for Couples in Ministry

ZONDERVAN

Praying Circles around Your Marriage

Copyright 2019 by Mark Batterson, Joel Schmidgall, Nina Schmidgall

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Epub Edition December 2018 9780310354901

ISBN 978-0-310-35488-8 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-35493-2 (international trade paper edition)

ISBN 978-0-310-35492-5 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-35490-1 (ebook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schmidgall, Joel, author. | Schmidgall, Nina, author. | Batterson, Mark. Circle maker.

Title: Praying circles around your marriage / Joel and Nina Schmidgall, with Mark Batterson.

Description: Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2018043082 (print) | LCCN 2018061759 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310354901 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310354888 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780310354932 (international trade paper edition)

Subjects: LCSH: Married people--Religious life. | Prayer--Christianity. | Spouses--Religious life. | Marriage--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Classification: LCC BV4596.M3 (ebook) | LCC BV4596.M3 S33 2019 (print) | DDC 248.3/2086955--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043082

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version. Public domain.

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Authors are represented by the literary agency of The Fedd Agency, P.O. Box 341973, Austin, Texas 78734.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

Printed in the United States of America

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To our church family, National Community Church,

and the couples who have given us the privilege of pastoring you.

Thank you for inviting us into your most sacred moments.

Contents

A bout halfway into a message that Joel and Nina Schmidgall shared about marriage at National Community Church, we knew they needed to write the book you hold in your hands. As we listened, we realized how much we have to learn from them. The irony is that weve been married a decade longer than Joel and Nina! And Joel is Loras younger brother! But their marriage is mature beyond its years. And we believe that God has graced them and called them to share those hard-earned lessons with you.