(Part 3 of ‘Let’s Talk about Marriage’ part of the ‘In Marriage’ Series)Notes____: This was previously the latter part of A Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness of Marriage. I wanted to shorten the length for those who have limited time online to read.______________________________________________________
I made the decision to follow the path of righteousness as a pre-teen.
With the exception of most of my college and university years, my life was spent in the church. Whichever branch of the church I attended, they were my spiritual family.
Giving most of my time to various coursework and finally my honours project and dissertation, irregular church attendance, became a habit. I got my dream job, at TV Travel Shop, immediately after graduating from university and that irregular church attendance continued. Within a year of being employed, I was dating the man of my dreams and he had already asked me to marry him. At that point I knew I needed guidance. I was still a member of the body of Christ but I felt disconnected after being away for so long and didn’t quite feel like I really could call myself a Christian.
Nevertheless, I knew that the church would be the best place to get the guidance we needed. Like the story of the lost coin (see Luke 15:8-10) or the lost son/prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-31) I knew that finding a place of fellowship would be the first step of finding my way back home. I was excited. I had a sense of hope that things would eventually change for the better and so I didn’t mind being stuck for a while.
My husband, on the other hand, was a young believer. He did make the decision to follow Christ before we started dating but didn’t follow through until the same year he became a father. That’s because he too had stopped attending church and when he decided to make a change in his life he was not connected to any part of the body (church family) where he could be guided. That made it easier for him to keep resisting. By the time he made that decision and got baptised, we were two years into the marriage.
Nevertheless, two years later we relocated and needed to find a new place of fellowship. The years to follow would open our eyes to things we weren’t prepared for, including the negative impact on our marriage.The journey continues in part 4 ~ Help I'm Stuck!