Contributing Writer: Emily Weatherby
If you’re just tuning in, stop by here to read the rest of the stories of women sharing from all walks of life.
At the age of 23, when I said my vows and repeated the words, “. . . to love and to cherish . . . in sickness and in health . . . ’til death do us part . . .” we shared a heart for the Lord and wanted to use our gifts to serve in youth ministry. I was excited to share my life with this man and was hopeful we could learn how to be helpmates, one for another. I had no idea what the words in our vows would truly mean and require of me in our future.
About four years ago, our life took an unexpected turn for the worse, starting with discovering he had an addiction. Things quickly got out of hand and I decided I needed to set boundaries for myself and for our son. I felt like I was drowning and he was grabbing on to me to stay afloat, but in doing so he kept dunking me under. After a series of events, I ended up asking him to move out of our home with the desire to work on ourselves individually, as well as on our marriage as a couple.
Things were so damaged and broken I knew that in order to rebuild, we needed some physical space to heal and get the help we both needed at that point. We were both working diligently at restoring our marriage. After living in separate homes for 5 months (what originally was going to be 2-4 weeks) I saw signs of his healing and I was excited to rebuild our marriage and family. One month after he moved back in with us, I found out that he had been having an affair on me for most of 2010. Life for me, from that day on, has been much of a blur; like a nightmare you want to forget.
My flesh wanted to be done with him and my marriage, so when my pastor asked me to seek God and to put things on hold for six months before making the decision to divorce or not, I wanted to scream, “Are you kidding me? No! ” Even though I had biblical grounds to divorce, I chose to obey God in what he was telling me to do. In faith, I chose to believe in what I couldn’t feel or fathom! I decided to take a baby step towards reconciliation with him by going to an intensive weekend seminar for couples trying to heal from adultery. We never made it to the seminar because in August of 2011, I found out that he had entered back into a relationship with “the other woman.”
For the first year after, I survived one day at a time. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) God has given me verses, people and several other “tiny miracles,” as I like to call them, in my life that have given me the hope and strength I have needed.
I am glad you shared in this series, I have been following along since the beginning. At first it seemed interesting to see where this was going but it fits because in the middle of the pain it sounds like God was your strength as you loved your husband through his addiction and adultery.
Jilly, Yes exactly that and because in the midst of a situation like this it’s important for us to remember “that God is NOT finished writing my story; I believe that He can “bring beauty from ashes.” (Isaiah 61:3) While my heart has been shattered, God is binding up my wounds.” Thanks for stopping by with the encouraging words for our writer, Emily.
In 1984, after 15 years of marriage, and a short time after my husband said “I know what I need to do to be the right kind of Christian husband and father, and I am not going to do it” the Lord told me to get out. My kids needed safety, if nothing else. He had had many affairs, and I had forgiven him a number of times [the Lord told me to], and he would change for a while and then fall back into his old life. [I've written a lot about this, but since he's still alive, I don't want it circulated enough to upset my son and daughter and their kids, b/c I have never told them the whole story.] A year after the divorce, I remarried. God dropped this wonderful man into my life. We’ve been married for 26 years and even though it hasn’t been totally perfect all the time, it’s been very good at least 99.9% of it. HE doesn’t think he’s that great, but I have some comparisons [my dad and ex, especially] and if I start complaining, I need to get whacked on the head by the Lord!! He’s been a good step-dad and our g-kids, who have known him all their lives, of course, just think he’s great. Walking through those tough and hard times can be tough and hard. But, God is Bigger and Dave’s favorite descriptive word of the Lord is Redeemer… Yes, He is a Redeemer. Nothing else counts.