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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Selfishness (02/14/05)
It was the hour of darkness. Hearing the key turn in the lock, Katey threw the bedcovers off and scrambled to get the money from her purse. As his footsteps approached their bedroom, she hid the money in her clothing.

A monster stared out at her through the windows of his eyes. "Give me the money." His voice was calm yet challenging and intimidating.

"No," Katey replied boldly, "We need this money for groceries."

"Give me the money!" His mouth curled into a teeth-bearing snarl.

Realizing the situation was volatile, Katey moved down the hall away from the bedrooms filled with sleeping children.

Katey wondered when the crack-cocaine would push him over the edge into madness or if he was there already.

"You better give me that money!"

She ran for the telephone but it was gone - another electronic casualty to the drug abuse.

Katey's mind began racing for an escape. Hearing the neighbors outside she fled out the door.

He left - driving back into the night on a tightrope between life and death. Although his soul staggered toward destruction, Katey could not see beyond her own pain.

As his adultery abounded, Katey's love for him grew colder.

Only the brutality of the streets would bring him home. Feigning repentance he would crawl into their bed.

War raged within her. Her faith in God's promise to save her husband if she would submit to him was threatened by her fear.

What if he has a disease? What if I get AIDS?

"Oh God, I can't go on like this! The wait for your promise is too long. Please let me die!"

Death became Katey's hope. Running had always been easy for her.

Her longsuffering, faithful God reminded her, "I too am married to an adulteress."

Glimpsing into the heartache of God, Katey sobbed.

How many years had Jesus patiently longed for her? He had remained faithful even when she had not.

Katey began to see the folly of her death wish. She knew that the death required of her involved living. Who would stand in prayer for her husband? Who would raise her four children?

Even her thoughts were covered in tears.

The children cry for their mommy, "Would you choose to abandon us?"

The husband cries for his wife, "The only Jesus I know is in you. Please don't give up on me."

Katey cries to her God, "Please forgive my selfishness. You have laid down your life for me and I will lay down my life for my family."


1 Peter 3:1,2 (NASB) "In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior."
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Member Comments
Member
Date
donna robinson
02/22/05
I think the problem I have with this is that God does not tell us to stay in an abusive situation. We can walk away and still stand in prayer for that person. It was well written, and it made me think, even if to disagree and isn't that what writing is suppose to do?
Sally Hanan
02/22/05
Yes, I would NEVER advise any woman to allow their husband to steal the food from his children's mouths or to keep his wife living in fear of her life. The selfishness in this is not just the husband's behaviour, but the wife's too in choosing to stay and put God's creations at risk, herself included.
Phyllis Inniss 
02/22/05
What a terrible struggle. Prayer is necessary, but you needed immediate help out of such a dangerous situation. Your story was well written and brought out the pain the wife was experiencing very well.
Crista Darr
02/22/05
Thank you for your comments and concerns regarding my story. The selfishness I wanted to show was my own, not my husbands. This story tells only an 'hour' of darkness. I did not keep my children and I in danger. Under the authority of my father-in-law, my father, and my pastor, I got a protective order against my husband. God is faithful and He has delivered my husband and restored our marriage. Day by day I have watched God transform him into a godly man. Jesus wins no matter how dark the problem - just trust Him and WAIT.
Crista Darr
02/22/05
How could I leave the reader with these uncertainties? I thought the promise in the verse summed it up. His Word cannot lie. By God's grace, I believed and obeyed and now the promise is mine! I realize this story is not finished without the happy ending.
Phyllis Inniss 
02/24/05
Thank you for letting us know that your trust in God as you waited for His solution has brought you out of the darkness. Blessings.
Barbara Hots
02/25/05
I loved your story - now I want to read the rest of it! Keep on writing, I see a lot of potential in you - you make the words become visual.
Debbie OConnor
02/26/05
Awesome writing, Crista. A powerfully told story. Most people have not had to lay down their lives quite as literally as you have. I'm glad you got help when it was too much. And I'm even more glad you chose life for the sake of your family and all of us who have the blessing of knowing you through your writing.
Cheri Hardaway
02/28/05
Crista,

It took great transparency and courage to share your testimony with us. God bless your willingness to not only lay down your life, but to share your pain with us all. I agree that there is great potential here. May God always be glorified in your writing, as He has been here. Blessings, Cheri
Nancy Hardy
03/12/05
Crista,
There is not much more I can add. I have not been in such a situation as to comment, other than, to say, sometimes we all stay in circumstances longer than we should, but God's grace leads us to His will, ever-interceding on our behalf. You boldly speak what so many live. I admire your courage and respect your faithfulness to the Father. God continue to bless you and your family. - Nancy