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Genia
K. writes: Here goes! I
never promised to be a writer so it may need some editing.
My husband and I started attending a church together after we were engaged about 4 1/2 years ago. We both had come from a church home and we both belonged to a church (where our parents were members). We decided we needed to find a church home for ourselves to start our marriage off right. We visited one in particular for a while where the pastor was someone my husband had known since he was a child. He felt comfortable there since he knew the pastor. I was not sure that this was the right place for us, but in an attempt to let my husband be the spiritual leader that God intended, I followed him to the front of the church at the next invitation. We were more involved than most people usually are and we attended almost every service. My husband began looking for another job so that he would be able to better support us after we were married, and the one he found required him to work quite a few weekends, making it difficult to attend as much as he previously had. The pastor, although he meant well, became condescending to my husband and finally after a short period of time turned my husband against church. He was terrified to go even when he could because he felt he was looked down on for the times he could not be there. I attended faithfully even when he was at work and we finally were married there a year later. My husband then started a new job which made us better off financially, but now he was unable to attend for six weeks at a time and we worked 12 hour night-shifts so his whole ability to function changed. He finally stopped going altogether. I then changed jobs at about the same time that he was transferred to a daytime shift, and it became my turn to work the 12-hour nights and I had to work every other Sunday. Our marriage became a battlefield. All we did was argue. It seemed like there was no hope for our marriage. We finally were able to get jobs that put us on the same schedule, but we were no longer in church. I resumed going to church at the church I was going to before we met. He refused to go at all. I planned to leave. Then about 2 months ago, we got into a fight and I told him I could not and would not continue to live with things the way they were. I told him I wanted him at church with me the next morning if we were going to try and save our marriage. We got up the next morning and went to his parent's church and the sermon was titled "Why You Should Go To Church". After the sermon he went to a table in the lobby and grabbed two daily devotional books. When we got home that evening he sat down with his bible, my bible, and the books and asked me to come sit with him. He told me that something hit him when we were in the service that he could not explain. I told him he didn't have to because I already knew what it felt like to have the Holy Spirit working in you. We have been doing Daily Devotions together everyday since, as well as a marriage study by Gary Chapman. We have since joined that church and he is fast becoming the spiritual leader and husband that God intended every man to be. I stand in awe at the way God works. He is truely an awesome God. If you want to turn your marriage around, just remember that it takes three. I am living proof that prayer works miracles, but you have to remember that the answers come in God's time so don't give up too quickly. As believers we do have our share of suffering, but it only makes us stronger. Everything by prayer and Perseverance! Make it your motto! Love in Christ, Genia
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