My Story

[GODSown1]

Awesum!! sister,
                     Amen 2 d@
                     muchLOVE!! Pera

[gmik]

Claudia, wow, very cool!!!  Thanks for sharing.  I wonder if I just don't pay enough attention--I bet He is teaching me thru natural things all the time--and I know for a fact He teaches me thru you all.

[acomplishedartis]

ey claudia

i red your post yesterday and it let me thinking. how you one day welcomed me and a few days i get to know all this about your life, and you never know at first with who are you really talking with and all the things they have pass trough.that makes me have more respect and try to be humble with anyone i met.
  did you already came back from san miguel? i dont know if you saw my last post with a link about it.
well i hope i could be ready to tell my story someday as well described as yours,
and thanks for the coments and all this.
bye

[dawnnnny]

Hi Claudia!

I just wanted to say hello.  I've only been here for about 10 days.  I just finished reading your original post and follow-ups and, as I sit here with tears in my eyes, I wanted to let you know that I too experienced many of the struggles you did in your marriage (in my first marriage).  It took 20 years for me to finally give up.  The pornography, infidelity, lack of kindness -- it was like reading my own story.  I want to tell you that it will keep getting better and better!  I went through a divorce and at the same time found out that my daughter (then 14) had leukemia.

So needless to say, I was a basket case.  I was angry at myself and angry at God.  Why me?  etc etc etc

But you know, He is so faithful and after all I went through, I can look back and know that it was all for a reason.  It was to teach this control freak a lesson     that I can't control squat! 

So I trust Him more now than I ever did.  I still start to worry (its in my genes) but it doesn't take me as long to give those worries to Him now.

He brought a wonderful man into my life 10 years ago and my daughter (who sounds much like yours) is a 23 year old beautiful and healthy young woman!

Joy DOES come in the morning, don't ever forget that!  Thank you for sharing and in so doing, giving me the opportunity to praise Him again for bringing me to today.

Love & Blessings!

Dawn

[Deborah-Leigh]

Hello Claudia

I wondered why I did not want to read your post. I saw it on the unread posts notices and I skipped it until it was the LAST one to read with nothing to do for me elsewhere in the Forum. S-O-O-...I read this thread BACKWARDS!

I read FIRST...your responses to give me some clue as to what your story was. Once I started, I read right through. Getting to your post I was thankful that I had not read your post first because as it happens, it strikes a deep cord with my own personal experiences. So much so, that it felt as though I was meeting myself thirty years ago. The Lord only knew that I had to approach this on a gradient!  

My story ended with my husband being murdered while I waited up for him to return home from his night out! I received news at 2am in the morning that he had been shot.

Fast forward thirty years and I can see that you, unlike me then, have got really deep insight into the ways and purposes of Christ for your life and for the preciousness that you are to HIM. I did not know that after I lost my husband...I was clueless and blind as a bat!...Like you, I left my husband due to his infidelity and abuse that was killing me. Like you, it just simply got beyond endurance and either I was going to die literally from it or I had to step out of the situation. I stepped out to save my life and he let me go to escape accountability for my frailty. I had lost so much weight that when I checked in with a Doctor I was told I was a few hours away from entering a Coma. Anyway, I got out of Italy and returned home to my parents in Africa, but he followed me and his torments became even more violent. I divorced him but he never left me. He was killed after we made some sort of reconciliation of a sort....I was even thinking of returning to him and was happy that his life ended without me feeling any resentment or anger towards him. Even though it took me ten years to get into a better relationship which is now happily blessed with my current husband.

I know this thread is not about me, but what I share I want you to compare how far ahead you are in terms of knowing about Christ and knowing His Plan for you is going to bring you to Him and His Glory. I did not know that then and you can be really glad that you know it now. Some people, MOST people are not called to see or hear Him. You obviously are seeing Him and hearing Him here in BT.

If I had known what you know now, I believe my life would have been radically different. I had to go through many more trials and circumstances especially written for me to go through.

I especially enjoy the insights the Lord has given you and the gentle trust He is designing in you that mirrors  HIM to me. He speaks to me through your post. My trials are not past by any means. They are just different now.

Your post is a blessing from Him through you and I hope that adds to your rainbow! It has to mine!

It sounds as though your daughter is one of those who is favored by the Lord, as are you who have endured this trial through His mercy and favor of our Lord. Your husband will have to repent and he will in God's time.

Dawn...my husband and I are blessed with a ten year old son! As parents we recieved restoration from our Lord and not too late either. We are not young but neither are we old and we have the best of both worlds youth and age I think! And just to sum up ...Psalms 56:8 You number and record MY wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle - are they not in Your book?

Our Lord IS FAITHFUL!

Peace to you

Arcturus

[dawnnnny]

Thank you for that beautiful verse Arcturus!  I believe its the first time I've "heard" it  How intimate is His love for us all...

[gmik]

What an honor and priviledge it is to "know" you gals.  Thank you so much for sharing your inner-most. Then we get to "see" how marvelous our God is as He works in you.  It helps me to believe a little bit more that He will be as Faithful to me.

<w/ love & tears>
me

[Deborah-Leigh]

Peace to you Dawn and my dear friend G.

[DuluthGA]

Hi again Claudia, I loved your real-life story of that very special thunderstorm  ....

and a heartfelt thank you Arcturus for sharing your testimony of the devastating and explosive tribulations in your first marriage.  Surely our Lord was with you through it all.  Hearing this, as with Claudia's story, brings the point that there does come a time when wives do not have to be submissive to their abusive and errant husbands to their own demise... whether it be the wife's mental or physical health or the sqandering of marital assets or other numerous deleterious effects.

Surely it was given to you, Arcturus, by God to "leave... step out" of that miserable marriage, praise His holy name. 

I am advising my friend (mentioned in the other post I talked with you about Arc) in a potentially bad marriage that could go very downhill fast that, yes, sometimes God is processing you with trials and tribulations, but I don't necessarily think it's okay with Him to let a steamroller roll over you if ya see it coming...  amen?  Kind of a no-brainer, but I can't site chapter and verse on that.   

I am thankful for a perfect God!
Janice

[LittleBear]

Thank you Arcturus and Dawn for sharing. I'm so glad that our God has brought you both out of a terrible situation, and brought restoration to your lives.

I agree with you Janice, there comes a time when it's just too much and a wife need not be bound to an abusive and errant husband. If he is abusive and no longer cares for his marriage, or is an adulterer, well, he has already himself left the marriage.

Love,

Ursula