"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
For most of my 17 years of marriage I was subjected to mental and physical abuse, often extreme and threatening my life. My husband also tried constantly to make me leave and abandon our children to him, which I refused.
We were often protected in ways which might seem amazing, but I was constantly studying and praying and expecting a solution through this. I knew I should be able to see him as a child of God, but felt that it was vital that he should acknowledge his behaviour and ask for forgiveness.
When the children were old enough and I was applying for divorce, they chose to stay with me, but later, one of them decided to live with him for some time. Later on her sisters persuaded her to return to us. We have met together with the children occasionally and the conversation has been amicable, but I would still not have the feeling of terror and injustice under control.
However, when this daughter was getting married, I was the one who was invited to the civil wedding. But then they arranged another wedding on location in Majorca, to which both he and his family and me and mine were invited. I discovered when attending a rehearsal, that he had been asked to “give her away” and to address the wedding couple and party in lieu of a priest or vicar.
I was so incensed at his hypocrisy, that I could hardly contain myself, and began to feel the intense fear mixed with anger from the past. Fortunately a friend noticed and pointed out that I must resolve this. Since then I have been trying to deal with the problem and see the bad behaviour as unreal error and nothing to do with the real child of God. It has taken me some time, but now I can acknowledge this and am free from the past.
I am pleased to say that I was recently with some acquaintances, who don’t know my past, and they were discussing how often married women are suppressed and not even given their due financial rights. I realised that I finally have made that separation of apparent past behaviour from the truth about the child of God.