Show Notes
This week, we open up about Sowing a Hidden Seed: Daily Prayers for Your Marriage to Heal, Grow and Flourish, our new prayer devotional for marriage, and the honest, sometimes hard road that led us to write it. This isn't a book born from a picture-perfect marriage. It came from a real one: two people who have had to learn, over and over, that marriage is worth the fight even when it's hard.
We walk through the heart of the devotional and where it came from, including a reflection from the Sermon on the Mount on what it looks like to be blessed and flourishing, even in the middle of struggle. We talk honestly about how neither of us can thrive in marriage on our own strength. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. We also share how the writing process itself became a lesson in marriage: two people learning, again, what it means to become one.
From there, we read from two of our favorite (and hardest won) days in the devotional: “Speaking Life” and “Tenderness,” days that speak directly to areas we've each had to grow in. We talk about the practice of praying borrowed prayers when you don't have your own words yet. And ultimately, we emphasize the comforting reality that if you and your spouse aren't currently praying together, that's okay. Give yourself permission to start where you are. It will feel awkward at first, and it gets easier as you build a joint practice of prayer.
If you're not praying together as a couple, let this be your invitation to start, one small, imperfect prayer at a time.
Sowing a Hidden Seed: Marriage Edition is currently available as our thank you gift to Legacy Builders, Intentional’s monthly giving community. Learn more at intentionalparents.org/devotional.
Scripture Mentioned: Matthew 5:1-12
Intentional Motherhood Retreat: October 15-17, 2026 in Portland, OR
Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX
Submit Questions: Send a voice recording to [email protected], mentioning your name and where you’re from.
Sowing a Hidden Seed: Parenting Edition
Join Our Legacy Builders
Watch on YouTube
Follow Us on Instagram: @intentional_parents @brookmosser @emosser
FREE Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting PDF
FREE Text Message Daily Devotional
Raising Passionate Jesus Followers
The Intentional Film Series
More from The Intentional Parents Podcast
This is a special, last-minute episode and an important one. In the wake of the Silver Rails shooting in our hometown of Bend, we sat down with our dear friend and therapist Sally Lemos, MS, LPC to talk about what to do when tragedy strikes close to home. Moments like this bring up our deepest fears as parents, and Sally shares biblical, therapeutic, and psychological wisdom for caring for ourselves and our kids. While this conversation was prompted by Silver Rails, it applies to any tragedy your family may face, big or small.
What do we actually want our girls to know about being a woman? Join us for a conversation between Elizabeth and Diane, where we draw on our experience raising daughters to explore what God needs to form in us first so we can pass it on to them. We look at what Scripture says a woman is and share what we wish we’d done differently. We push back on the lie that there’s one right way to be a woman, and talk about coming alongside our daughters rather than telling them who to be. That begins with two foundations: becoming aware of our own woundedness, and listening to the Spirit, who knows our daughters better than any parenting book or Instagram reel ever could.
In an age of cancel culture, estrangement and relational strain are touching more families than ever. In this episode, we explore humility as the antidote, looking at six marks of a humble person and how they can transform every relationship in your life, from staying teachable when we're corrected to being willing to move toward repair when there's been hurt.
What if there's someone better out there? Why is marriage so hard? In this final episode of our Stay in Your Cell series, we name that forbidden thought for what it is: a lie. We start with our own story, including the struggles in our marriage, because we're still in process ourselves.
As part of our “Stay In Your Cell” series, we pose the question: Why is it so hard to find community, and even harder to stay in it? When the family is growing and the calendar is full, it's easy to not send the text, not make the plan, and slowly drift away from the people in our lives. Plus, our culture hands us an easy exit whenever things get uncomfortable: we can unfollow, leave the group chat, or leave the church, and before long we become relationally aloof. And if you're a young family with no relatives nearby and you're struggling, it may be because you were never meant to do this life alone.