[The following is an excerpt from my book Forgiven and Restored.] DEAR READER, YOU MAY BE WONDERING what it is that makes me such an expert on forgiveness and restored relationships. Why should you read this book and take my advice? Well, I don’t claim to be an expert by any means, but I do know what it’s like to be in your shoes. I know what it’s like to live with indescribable pain and loss and feel like you
Tag: infidelity
Why didn’t you leave?
Why didn’t you leave? It’s a question that I get asked every now and again –more often than I would like — from people who learn the story of my marriage. My initial reaction is to get defensive, angry even. Especially when the question comes from friends who know my husband and me intimately. But then I think, “maybe they don’t know because my reasons are not the world’s reasons.” So here it is. To set the record straight. To
Today is the day
Today’s the big day. It’s the day I’ve been preparing and praying for since I wrote the first words on July 25, 2014. Almost five years to the day and my book Forgiven and Restored is published. It’s real, it’s out there for the world to buy and read. Five years of writing and rejections and praying and giving up and trying again and more rejections and working hard and crying and saying “thank you God”. And then there was
Beauty from the ashes: A look at marriage after infidelity
We were married five years when I found out my husband had been unfaithful. He had also been hiding an addiction to pornography that he’d secretly struggled with for many years, before we even met, which had led to a night that would change our marriage forever. Although I thought I knew what I would do if ever faced with that situation, the truth is none of us really knows until we are knee deep in the pain and brokenness
Why it hurts whenever I hear the words "if my husband ever cheated on me, I would leave him"
[Author’s note: I am incredibly grateful to my husband for encouraging me to write about and share this very personal part of our story. He believes, as do I, that God has called us to use our past to encourage and give hope to others. For his selflessness and bravery, I love him all the more.] There we are, sitting at a table in a busy restaurant, enjoying a “mom’s night out”. The talk at the table turns to a