by Linda Veath

What started out as a “match made in heaven” with so much potential and so much love ended with bitterness and regret. And there’s the sadness. Of what could have been. Of what should have been. With a stroke of a pen, the whop of a judge’s gavel.

… a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. ~ Genesis 2:24 NIV

… a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. ~ Genesis 2:24 NIV

Angry words. Shed tears. Families torn apart. Friends divided.

Betrayal. Lies. Broken vows. Shattered lives.

Fear. Sorrow. Lonely days. Lonely nights.

Sadness. Oh, the sadness.

Forget the “he said/she said’s” and the “he did/she did’s.” The deepest sadness is that both are Christians. But the flesh, the world, and the devil attacked their marriage, tore them apart, and won a battle.

A battle. But not the war. Christ has already won the war.

God loves both of His children with an everlasting love. And He grieves for their loss. But just as in all our sins and struggles, He will take the pain, the betrayal, the sin, and work in spite of it, to bring good to their lives and glory to His name. The journey may not be easy. But He will be with them on the journey. And hopefully they heal and they can help other couples not to go down the path they went.

Our society seems bent on destroying the sanctity of marriage, the family unit as God designed it. Husbands and wives are bombarded from every side with temptations, addictions, “worldly amendments” to God’s law. The only way to navigate the journey of a marriage in this day is to look to the Lord in all things and seek His help in a marriage.

May the truth of His Holy Word guide and keep all of us from the pain that comes with the death of a marriage.