Shuquin, I am praying for you right now. I pray that He would bring someone that could stand with you for your marriage — someone to pray with you and believe with you. I pray that you would desire to fight for your marriage. The enemy may have won some battles but today is a new day. You are not alone. And as long as God is, there is hope.

As I’ve shared with you before, my 31 year marriage has weathered deep valleys and dark storms. It has truly been the grace of God that we are still together. Yes, we both have willfully made a choice to keep at it. But even that is by God’s grace. I can’t pat myself on the back for “doing what’s right,” because God put in me the power to do the right thing. And that goes for my husband too.

I think it is important to be transparent to other believers. I used to believe that most of the Christian couples I knew had idealistic marriages. Just recently, another couple were visiting with us, and we opened up about our courtship and marriage and some of the difficulties we have gone through. This other couple related to us…they’d been through much of the same things! Why do I think that every marriage I see in our church body is perfect, except for mine? I hid my problems from my Christian friends, I put on my mask when I went to church.

My prayer has been,”Lord, help me love him the way you love him. Show him to me through your eyes.”

And once,”Lord, I can’t do this anymore! I’ve tried everything! If you want this marriage to continue, then you will have to make it happen. If it is up to me, I’m outta here!”

There is still room for improvement. I think there will always be room for us to grow closer. But I am so glad I didn’t run away. I thank my God, my Daddy, for my husband.

Tina