Family headship; dryness in prayer

I would like to give accolades to a very good blogger I have come across recently. She is Jennifer Fulwiler and her blog is Conversion Diary. She used to be a feminist atheist and is now Catholic and married with children.

On August 12 she wrote an insightful post, "Why it makes sense to be obedient to my husband." In it she describes how her thinking has changed from being against the idea (as it would be contrary to woman's equal value) to being in favor of it. She approaches the subject from several angles including leadership, limitations, equality, fairness, motivation, providence, and love. If this subject interests you, it is well worth reading.

I would also like to highly recommend an excellent post Jennifer wrote, "The greatest nothing I ever felt." She writes about the issue of emotionally intense prayer as compared to more spiritually quiet, dryer prayer, and how God helped her realize during adoration that a close relationship to Christ does not always have to translate into intensely moving prayer experiences. Here is an excerpt:

Other women began to sniffle and lean their heads on the pews, and I grabbed a couple Kleenex from the box next to me for when my own powerful experience began. As regular readers know, God rarely speaks to me so clearly as when I'm in Adoration, . . . and it seemed inevitable that going to Adoration in such a beautiful chapel surrounded by such God-loving women at such a Christ-centered retreat would leave me open to the Lord's promptings as never before. I crossed myself, prayed, gazed at the monstrance, and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Jennifer addresses a subject that is very relevant for many Christians striving to grow closer to Christ--especially for those whose personalities tend to be highly passionate. Later in her post she writes,

I realized that this relatively new understanding of God gave me a certain kind of joy. It wasn't a shout-from-the-rooftops, overwhelming kind of joy borne of a powerful visceral reaction to some event; rather, it was the calm, steady, quiet joy borne of knowledge of the truth.

If you sometimes struggle wondering why the Lord does not always grant the consolations in prayer that you desire, do check out Jennifer's comments in full.