How to Fall in Love with Your Spouse…Even Before You Meet Him or Her 

by Stephanie Wood 

If you had come up to me prior to a few months ago and told me that I could fall in love with my husband before I meet him, I probably would’ve laughed in your face. Of course I’ve heard of love at first sight, or love after the first date, but love before sight? No way.  

Over the past few months, however, I’ve changed my mind.            

Last summer my dad received a wedding invitation from a couple in California whom he has never met. The couple had read Dad’s books on “The ABCs of Choosing a Good Spouse” and had taken his advice to pray for their future mate. After making regular visits to the adoration chapel to pray for this specific intention, Melissa met and became engaged to Joe, the man of her dreams.  

God brought this particular couple together from across the miles – she lived in Southern California and he lived in Wisconsin. Reading the wedding invitation (and the enclosed letter profusely thanking my dad for his courtship advice) challenged me to do the same thing in my life: to begin praying regularly for my future spouse.  

Melissa and Joe’s story wasn’t the first time I’d heard of couples meeting and marrying as a result of prayer. But holding that wedding invitation in my hands was a powerful and physical reminder to me that God really, truly, completely knows my future husband already. He knows every hair on his head. He knows all his thoughts, struggles, triumphs and failures. He knows what he had for breakfast last Tuesday. He also knows the perfect time and place for Mr. Right to meet me. In other words, God’s got it all under control.  

While I’ve been praying for my future husband for years in an “off and on” sort of way, I recently decided to make a daily commitment to pray for my husband-to-be.  

I began praying for him during the prayers of the faithful at Mass every day. I also started praying a decade of the Rosary for him every night before bed. I found myself offering prayers for the simplest things for him – that God would bless his day, his work, his family, his friends. That God would give him the strength to live each day 100% for God. I started praying that God would give my Mr. Right the grace to resist temptation and to keep himself pure for me.   

Since I’ve started praying regularly for “him,” surprising things have begun to happen. I was on the phone with one of my sisters the other night and I told her, “You know what? I’ve fallen in love with my husband…even though I don’t know who he is yet.” 

It’s true. Offering my thoughts and prayers to God has set my heart and mind on a totally different track. Since I’ve started praying daily for my husband-to-be, I’ve found myself excited about my “relationship” with him – even though it doesn’t currently exist. I know that it’s going to happen in God’s perfect timing, and that it’ll definitely be worth the wait.  

I’ve also noticed other things in my life changing for the better. I find myself trying harder to overcome those little faults and sins that plague my life – because I want to become a better person, a holier woman, a more perfect child of God, and I want to take on a purer heart, all to get ready…for him.  

Yeah, I know. This does sound a little crazy. But I challenge you to try it. Start praying for your future spouse, whether or not you think you’ve met him or her already. Pray specifically for your future mate’s intentions, and then wait and see how God transforms you life and the way you view relationships.  

And then, the next time someone asks if you believe in love at first sight – you can really give them something to think about.