Help and Healing for Divorced Christians

Why You Should Forgive Your Ex and How to Do It

4/2/2020

Photo by Eugenia Maximova on Unsplash

The Benefits of Forgiveness
Maya Angelou called forgiveness “one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.” Unrelenting unforgiveness traps us in the past. Forgiveness breaks the cycle of pain and victimhood we’ve been carrying, and frees us emotionally from the person who’s hurt us. Rooting out unforgiveness leaves room for joy in new experiences. My friend, Debbie Hucke notes, “[Forgiveness] releases the flow of God’s grace and His healing power.

The Struggle to Forgive
I knew that, as a Christian, I was supposed to forgive my ex. But I struggled, revisiting his many lies and the hurts he inflicted upon me. His betrayal haunted my nightmares and sprung up unbidden during the day. I could barely function. “Go ahead, Lord,” I urged, “roast him and toast him!”

“Betrayed” had become the narrative of my life.

I made an appointment with my new pastor, hoping he had the magic words that would help me with this task. “Forgiveness is absolutely necessary, and you should do it as soon as possible,” he responded. “Remember, God has forgiven both you and Jim.” He pointed to some of the passages in the Bible that deal with forgiveness.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Matthew 6:14

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

There were more verses, and I knew them all. He might as well have said, “Just do it.” Did that help me? Of course not! I felt more shame and frustration for not being ready to forgive

What Forgiveness Looks Like
Forgiveness is a Process, not a onetime event
I hope by now that pastor has a better understanding of the forgiveness process. Forgiving doesn’t mean we immediately stop feeling hurt or we deny our feelings. I love what Nancy Richards, author of the memoir Mother, I Don’t Forgive You said in a recent interview with Kathy Pooler: “Forgiveness is not an event of immediacy. It’s not a bolt of lightning that brightens the soul and burns the pain to ashes. Forgiveness is a process; one that we must honor with our own healing timetable.” (1)

By acknowledging our pain, not just with our heads but with our whole being, we open the door for healing and forgiveness.

How to forgive
Ask God
God wants us to forgive, but He doesn’t expect us to forgive on our own. He’s a patient God, waiting to help us on our journey of forgiveness when we’re ready to ask Him.

Forgive yourself
In his book Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve, Lewis B. Smedes wrote: “[Forgiveness] cannot heal our narcissistic resentments toward people for not being all that we expect them to be … Nobody can forgive people for being what they are.” (3)

I had to shed the illusion that I could have somehow changed my ex into the person I thought he should be. Eventually I realized my resentment toward him was a waste of my good time. If I had anyone to forgive, it was me for being wrong in my belief I could fix him. I also needed to forgive myself for staying so long and letting him get away with his treatment of me.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean we shouldn’t protect ourselves
We can forgive someone even when we don’t trust them. An ex-spouse who has hurt us and remains unrepentant cannot be expected to change because of our forgiveness. I was relieved when I decided to hand over my ex and his problems to God. My job was to take care of me and my stuff. I practiced dealing with my ex as I would a business arrangement, spending as little emotional energy as possible. When the situation called for it, I sought to remind him, in a neutral manner, of his better nature. (I confess it took me a while to get to this point.)

Try empathy
You probably know your ex better than anyone else. Try to imagine what drove him or her to the behaviors that hurt you so much. Would a healthy person do the same? Probably not.

When I think of the parental abuse my ex endured during his childhood, my heart aches for him. That’s not to say I condone his actions, but it helps me see him as a vulnerable human being who didn’t have the capability of being the kind of spouse I needed or wanted. This realization has helped me forgive him.

Get help
I believe true forgiveness cannot be achieved in the midst of trauma. If you find yourself endlessly recycling hurt and anger as I did, get help. Many churches sponsor divorce recovery support groups led by people who understand what you’re going through. They’ll facilitate your learning how to heal and gain hope for your future. Individual counselors can be helpful, too. I took advantage of both. My counselor put me on anti-depressants until I was able to better cope. Through my divorce recovery group, I gained new friends as we negotiated our newly single lives. Healing and moving forward opened me to gradual forgiveness.

Use a little humor
Make a list of all your ex’s faults and put them together in a faux dating ad. Would you want to date that guy (or gal), let alone, be married to someone like that? No way!

Understand your power to forgive
In a Psychology Today article, Lisa Firestone writes, “Learning to forgive helps us to control our story and our feelings to avoid unnecessary pain. As powerful individuals, we can choose between living in a victim mode or an adult mode. In the latter state, we acknowledge and feel the full pain of what happened to us without getting stuck in a triggered state in which we feel it is still happening. We can feel our feelings without letting them overtake us.” (4)

Have I been able to forgive my ex, you ask. When some folks learn I’ve written a memoir about my marriage, divorce, and recovery, they assume I’ve done so to “get back” at him. Although there might have been some truth to that when I first began, revisiting my life has given me a more nuanced perspective. I see the whole man now, with both good and bad qualities. He’s someone I spent a great deal of my life with, and with whom I share a now-grown child. I have enough emotional distance now that he can no longer hurt me. I wish him the best.

Imagine you have the power to forgive. Can you feel your shoulders relax and your jaw unclench? Is your walk a little lighter? Just remember, forgiveness takes time. Be gentle with yourself as you follow the path of forgiveness, looking ahead to the many blessings that await you.

Blessings,

Author

Linda M. Kurth is a writer and a divorced and remarried Christian. In going through the divorce, she experienced a dichotomy of responses from the Christian community. After sharing some of those experiences in her upcoming memoir, God, the Devil, and Divorce, she's heard many stories of divorced Christians who have struggled with the same issues. This blog invites divorced Christians to tell their stories with the goal of encouraging churches to resist condemnation and become a source of healing and grace.

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Learning to Live Again in a New World

3/10/2020

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I recently asked Marlene Anderson to tell us about her new book, Learning to Live Again in a New World: A Journey from Loss to New Life, that touches on an issue apropos to many who are going through divorce. Marlene is a licensed therapist, author, and speaker. Her website notes, “She is passionate about sharing God’s great love and transforming power and helping every woman discover her potential—Marlene encourages and motivates others who are going through tough times.” Here’s our conversation.

Linda

Marlene, you went through a devastating loss when your husband died. Many of us who have been through divorce have experienced profound loss too. Can you speak to the universality of loss?

Marlene

Thanks, Linda. Yes, we often think of losses as something we quickly address and then move on with life as usual. But the more significant the loss, the more the impact it has on every area of our life: social, financial, personal, family, friendships, and our past as well as our future. There are many layers connected to our losses that require time to process adequately.

A significant loss can trigger old losses from our childhood, and we feel those emotions all over again. Relationships within social circles begin to change. Conflicts with family or others may require intercession as we come to terms with difficult situations surrounding our loss.

Linda

You mention social circles changing. I know this is common after a divorce. That was true for me, as I had recently moved. I needed new single friends, but more basic than that, I needed to answer many questions about what my life would ultimately look like. It took a lot of effort to define and shape my new reality.

Marlene

With all endings, a transition is needed to leave one reality behind as we move to a new beginning. As we pick up the pieces of our life, questions bombard us about how and where to go from here. “What do I do now,” and “Will I ever be happy again?” We can experience a multitude of emotions and conflicting thoughts: shock, anger, fear, anxiety, relief, shame, guilt, etc. In that process, reflection is required, goals need redefining, and we need to answer the question, who am I now? I knew who I was yesterday, but who am I today?

Linda

I remember wishing I could speed up the process of divorce recovery. Can you speak to that?

Divorce is a significant loss – it is a death of a marriage

Marlene

Divorce is a significant loss – it is a death of a marriage that was important. It takes time to process any loss and it is important to grant ourselves that time. We can use that time more effectively when we come to terms with the unpleasant things associated with it. That can be more difficult because after a certain length of time, friends and family assume we have healed. They resume their lives, and we find ourselves alone, struggling to put the pieces back together. We begin to lose confidence and doubt ourselves and our abilities to make a new positive start. Age and circumstances can require a greater effort in restructuring our lives. Trying to find a “new” normal takes time and we might hurry through some important decision considerations.

Linda

During my divorce recovery, I had the opportunity to learn from other newly divorced singles about their recovery process. It seems that some people hide away and don’t want to talk about what they’re going through. I’m rather embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t stop talking about it!

You are in uncharted territory

Marlene

Feedback from supportive friends and licensed professionals is important. We need validation for the turmoil of thoughts and emotions we experience. We need to find ways to get conflicting thoughts out of our heads so we can work more constructively with them. You are in uncharted territory. You have never been here before. Support is critical and sharing with others in a safe group, can be healing. In my book, I offer additional information about working through the more complex emotions of anger, shame and guilt in Appendix A of my book.

Linda

You’ve obviously thought a lot about how to recover from loss and grief.

Marlene

You're right, I have. Grieving a loss is more than just acceptance and letting go. It is about building a new reality within all areas of our life. We need information that can both help us understand and work with what we are experiencing, and the tools to create a new satisfying and meaningful beginning. Moving through that transition from ending to new life requires careful thought and personal clarification.

As I moved from personal grieving after the death of my husband to acquiring more knowledge about grief and loss through continuing education courses, I began working with clients, individually and in group sessions. I soon realized that people wanted and needed more than just talking about their sorrow. And while there were many books available that spoke to those early days of sorrow, it seemed little information was offered to help grievers create a new road map moving forward. I began creating worksheets that addressed some of those conflicts and concerns. And this became the genesis for my current book.

More about Marlene’s book:
Learning to Live Again in a New World: A Journey from Loss to New Life is divided into four parts. Part one addresses those early days of loss and part two speaks to letting go, putting your loss to rest. Part three looks at going through that transitional period between what you are leaving behind and how to begin again. Part four helps you assess obstacles, think through options and put together a new plan for your life. The two appendixes offer additional information on working through difficult grief emotions and offering and receiving support. There is a study guide at the end of the book that can be used in group settings, and it comes in hard or soft copy, e-book and audio book. The following link will take you to her book release page on Amazon.

I appreciate Marlene spending the time to talk a little about grief and why it's important to address the issue when it occurs in our own lives.

Blessings,

Blog Author

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Overcoming Divorce Shame: Part II

2/18/2020

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In my previous post, I explored the causes of feeling shamed by one's divorce. Here are some strategies for overcoming divorce shame.

Surround yourself with people who want to support you. For me it was a mix of family, a divorce recovery group, and new friends I found through a Christian singles group. Search for a non-judgmental faith community.

Be willing to accept where you failed in your marriage, but don’t obsess about it. In and article for "Psychology Today," John Amodeo, Ph.D wrote, “Differentiate toxic shame from healthy, friendly shame. Recognizing the toxic shame that holds us back from being and affirming ourselves is a helpful step towards reducing it. Noticing healthy shame that informs us when we’re violating another’s boundaries and dignity can attune us to how we’re affecting people.” Understand you are learning and growing and becoming a better person from your experience. You are not defined by your past mistakes.

Be open to self-compassion, recognizing and accepting your wounds. Don’t expect to make a quick recovery. You’re probably experiencing many changes since the divorce and need time to adjust. There may be days you feel paralyzed, and that’s normal.

You may think you’ve conquered shame, only to have it show up again. If you can’t seem to let it go, make an appointment with your counselor. Believe it or not, simply by acknowledging you need help is progress.

Be bold in finding the right professional with whom to talk. Be an advocate for yourself, and insist on finding someone who is right for you. I quickly discovered my first post-divorce counselor didn’t understand my faith issues. Once I was able to articulate what I needed, it was easier to find a counselor who suited me.

Make an inventory of your worth and achievements. If you have trouble getting started, pretend you are your own best friend. What kind things can you tell her you see in her.

Bring your shame to Jesus. He understands shame, having been mocked, spat upon, and finally allowing Himself to be killed. His Word reassures us of our worth (read Romans 8:1). If you are aware of any wrongdoing on your part, bring those to Him and He'll forgive you, releasing you from your shame.

If you've been suffering from divorce shame, I pray these suggestions will lift your spirits, and that you'll be able to move beyond shame into the light.

Blessings,

Author

Linda M. Kurth is a writer and a divorced and remarried Christian. In going through the divorce, she experienced a dichotomy of responses from the Christian community. After sharing some of those experiences in her upcoming memoir, God, the Devil, and Divorce, she's heard many stories of divorced Christians who have struggled with the same issues. Linda advocates for the healing of divorce Christians, She invites them to tell their stories with the goal of encouraging churches to resist condemnation of divorced people and become a source of healing and grace.

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Overcoming Divorce Shame, Part I

2/12/2020

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When I married my current husband, our announcement carried the tag line, “Third time’s the charm.” Both of us had been married and divorced twice. Even though we were Christians, we were not ashamed to admit it.

But that wasn’t true for me in the first month after divorcing my husband of twenty-five years. I’m writing this post for those of you who were left by a spouse, and for those of you who had a need to leave for your own well being and/or for the good of your children. Let's first look at reasons for divorce shame.

Losing Your Title
Why are many of us ashamed, when almost half of all marriages end in divorce? I believe one reason for women is they may identify strongly with being wives. I once met a woman who had written a divorce memoir entitled, Once a Wife. I couldn’t relate. To me, losing the title of wife paled in comparison with loss of love, companionship, security, and other marital benefits. Come to think of it, I don’t know of many divorced men who are ashamed because they no longer have the title of “husband.”(Let me know if I’m wrong here.)
Anyone can get married. Any woman can find a way to become a wife. If losing the title of “wife” is your issue, be creative and give yourself one or two new, more positive titles to accurately describe who you really are … someone much more than a wife.

Being Seen as a Failure
How about divorce seen as a sign of failure? Now we’re getting somewhere. Divorce is often equated with failure, and we are taught we shouldn’t fail, particularly with our significant life choices.
The Oxford dictionary defines failure as “the omission of expected or required action.” When we marry, we’re usually optimistic, “expecting” our marriage will last until the end of our lives. When it doesn’t, it’s easy to consider our marriage a failure.

Removing our children from a toxic situation should not be cause for shame.

When there are offspring involved, there’s also the failure of providing them with an “intact” family. However, you know in your heart of hearts that staying in a bad marriage for the sake of children is often not the best for them. Removing them from a toxic relationship should not be cause for shame.
Since it takes two to make a marriage, it’s likely you’re not totally responsible for its ending. It does no good to beat yourself up for whatever you did or didn’t do. Learn from the past and strive to move forward. You are responsible for being the best you can be for your children’s sake. This includes keeping your relationship with your ex as civil and professional as possible. Remind yourself, a marriage which lasts forever, with one or both partners miserable, is not a successful one.
One more thing … We often learn more from our failures than our triumphs. If you’re anything like me, deciding to divorce took a lot of courage. And, although your marriage ended, good things (like your kids!) probably occurred while married. You haven’t failed completely. Your marriage likely had worth, and you can be grateful for the good you experienced and brought to it.

Rejection
There’s often an element of rejection in divorce. The desire to divorce is usually not shared equally between partners, and rejection stings! Self-doubt creeps in, followed by shame. According to Patrick Wanis, Ph.D., “If a person cheats on his/her spouse, the perceived rejection and betrayal can trigger feelings of humiliation when others learn about the betrayal, or it can lead to shame if the person who is being rejected blames him or herself and concludes ‘there is something wrong with me.’” "Why Rejection Hurts So Deeply – Heartache, Humiliation & Shame" Mar 23, 2016.

Believe him when he says, “It’s not you, it’s me."

The key here is to believe it when he says, “It’s not you, it’s me.” As much as you’d like to continue to be his one and only, he’s changed. He’s no longer the man he used to be, and that’s not your fault.

Divorce isn’t supported by your community of friends and family
Friends, family, perhaps even our children, can attempt to shame us when we fail to make our marriage last. We may be told we shouldn’t leave because we’d be throwing away all the time and energy we’ve invested in our marriage, as if we could somehow bank on such an investment.
Families may try shaming you for being the first to divorce, breaking their record of intact marriages and ruining their reputation in the community. If they truly loved you, they’d support you even though you broke their mold. Your family’s rejection can feel even worse than your spouse’s. Hang in there. When they eventually see how much happier you are forging a better life for you and your kids, they’ll likely come around. Besides, your happiness is the best revenge!

Divorce isn’t supported by your faith community
Being accused of turning your back on God and going against biblical principles when you choose to divorce can be devastating. I personally experienced this type of shame from my pre-divorce counselor, a pastor whose church I was interested in joining, and most upsetting of all, a conservative friend of my ex. This friend actually convinced me I should confess my sin to my ex, and ask forgiveness as well as reconciliation. Thanks to God, my ex rejected my request and I came to my senses.

This mind set can cause years of toxic shame to victims who leave.

There are personal accounts on my blog by women who describe the shaming and shunning they received by their churches for deciding to divorce their abusive husbands. One of my posts “Domestic Abuse: How Churches Can Help instead of Hurt” describes a common problem in cases of divorce among parishioners: “Church leaders may even urge the abused to forgive and reconcile with their abusers, emphasizing a theology of suffering, and using Scripture to elevate the sanctity of the marriage covenant over the safety of the abused.” This mind set can cause years of toxic shame to victims who leave.

I'm sorry to end on such a negative note, but this post is too long all ready! Look for Part II, "What You Can Do About Divorce Shame."
Blessings,

Author

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He Did You a Favor by Leaving: Learning to Let Go

2/3/2020

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He did you a favor by leaving. Those words may sound harsh, even bitter.

He left you … maybe your kids too … with a broken heart and a diminished bank account. How can you be thankful for such a situation?
This may be a difficult concept to consider while you’re still hurting, but the truth is, you have the choice

between wishing he hadn’t left and being okay that he’s no longer your husband. How is that possible?
Let me be clear, I’m not dismissing the loss of financial security you may have derived by staying in your marriage. He may have left you and your children destitute as well as reeling from the loss of love. Such treatment is horrible, and I’m so sorry. If you are both Christian, you may be sick at heart over his having left his faith too. But right now, let’s focus on you and ask the question:

Is the type of man who would leave, the right man for you?

None of us wants to feel rejected, even if the one who has rejected us isn’t good for us. In trying to undo the rejection, your ego may tell you to wish him back. Talk back to your ego! Tell it you need to get real and look at your situation differently so you can see the truth. Tell it you need to let go.
Ask yourself why you’d want this man … this kind of man … still yoked to you. Were you physically and emotionally safe with him? Have you been truly happy in your marriage? Has he changed over the years? Do you love him or do you love the kind of person he once was or you wished he was?
I ask these hard questions because for years I was the one who overlooked my husband’s hints he was not totally invested in our marriage. I dragged him to counseling several times without seeing permanent change. But I kept hoping he’d “see the light” and change as he promised. Your husband may have been more subtle, but I’m betting his decision to leave didn’t happen overnight, even if his sudden leaving took you by surprise.

It's okay to express your anger.

If you asked, my ex would tell you I was the one who left. In a legal sense, it’s true, but he’d abandoned me emotionally long before our divorce. (Look for my upcoming memoir, God, the Devil, and Divorce if you want the details.) And when he quickly remarried, he left me heartbroken as well as angry … angry with myself for investing so much time trying to make things better as well as angry with him. And yet, I had a hard time letting go.

You, too, may cycle through heartbreak and anger. A first step is to express your anger in healthy ways. Scream, pound your pillow, go to talk therapy … do whatever healthy things you can do to let it out and let it go. One thing that helped me was taking the shears to the overgrown rhododendron in my yard. “Take that!” Whack! Whack! “And that!” Whack! Whack!

He is who he is.

As the shock of my husband’s abandonment wore off, I began reading books, trying to make sense of what happened and working on forgiveness. Lewis B. Smedes stunned me with this observation: “[Forgiveness] cannot heal our narcissistic resentments toward people for not being all that we expect them to be — nobody can forgive people for being what they are.” (Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve, HarperOne, 2007) In other words, who are we to expect people to be any different than they truly are? Even God does not change a person’s will. My ex was who he was. He knew who I wanted him to be, and he chose not to be that kind of person.
My ego was stubborn and I didn't find it easy to fully understand this truth. It took me a while after the divorce to not wake up from dreams begging him to come back, and to truly believe I was better off without him. Sad for me, but as I learned to accept my reality, the more peace I found.

Can you accept he isn’t the kind of man who is good for you?

If you had the chance to start over, knowing all you know about your ex now, would you choose to let him into your life? Can you accept he isn’t the kind of man who is good for you or will change for you?
Learning to live on my own after twenty-five years of marriage challenged and strengthened me. It unleashed multiple blessings in my life. I felt surrounded by both earthly and heavenly love. I even found a new passion in ballroom dancing.
Now that you’re free of your ex, you can open yourself up to more possibilities. His leaving has given you an opportunity to grow and learn and become emotionally stronger.

Try this exercise.

Imagine, as I did, a friend offering to set you up with someone like your ex. It might go something like what I imagined in my journal entry if you substitute his worst qualities:
“I want to introduce you to someone I think you’re going to like. He’s a bit overweight, I hear he snores like crazy, spends all of his time at the computer, wants to be waited on, and is a picky eater, but he really is a nice guy. Maybe a little passive-aggressive too, but nice.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” I’d say “I deserve so much better!”

I pray the Lord provides you with the resources you need to survive and flourish. I pray you wake up one day soon with a smile on your face, knowing you’re free of the hurt and anger of your divorce, knowing you deserve so much better, believing he did you a favor by leaving.

Wishing you every happiness,

Author

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Forgiving Myself for Trying to Save My Marriage

1/1/2020

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“I’m glad to see that you’re working on forgiving your ex,” my counselor told me. “This is an important step in freeing yourself from the trauma of living in a toxic relationship. But have you considered forgiving yourself?”

I gasped. “What are you saying? I did the very best I could to keep our marriage together. In fact, I feel like a fool working so hard at it. It wasn’t until I discovered my husband’s affair that I finally gave up. I’m the victim here!”
My counselor smiled indulgently. “I know, Linda, but that’s my point. You tried so hard and it didn’t work. As you just said, you ended up feeling like a fool. I suspect you’re not just carrying anger toward your ex, but toward yourself as well. Let’s explore that.”

Through my counselor’s guidance, I discovered he was right about my displaced anger.

I was angry with myself for falsely believing my husband would see the logic of living an emotionally healthy life and would eventually choose that path.
I was angry with myself for attempting to convince myself that my husband’s good qualities outweighed the bad.
I was angry with myself for not listening to my inner voice telling me my husband’s behavior was not acceptable and should not be tolerated.
I was angry with myself for believing I had the power to change my husband’s behavior.
I was angry with myself for trusting my husband would never willingly choose to hurt me emotionally.
I was angry with myself for hanging on too long to a marriage that clearly was never going to heal.
I was angry with myself for not trusting God and myself that I would have been okay had I left my marriage earlier.

Forgiving myself for these false notions took some work.
I’m happy to report the results.

I’ve made mistakes, but I’m human and I did the best I knew how. That has to be okay.

I had invested much in my relationship, including having a child with my husband. I am not a quitter, and giving up on my marriage seemed like throwing out much of that investment. I now realize that the good returns on that investment were not worth the cost. I was right to call an end to it.
I learned I can’t fix other people, but I don’t blame myself for attempting to help someone I loved.
A propensity to see the best in people is not a character flaw. It comes from a loving heart. However, I’ve grown wiser about relationships from this experience.
Despite my fears, I ultimately overcame them, leaving even when I couldn’t predict my future.
My marriage and divorce has taught me valuable lessons. I’m much more capable than I once believed. When fear invades my thinking, I remind myself I’ve overcome a great deal and am capable of continuing to do so.
I’ve learned to trust my God-given instincts and to act upon them.
I’ve become better at self-care and have learned to respect myself. To be blunt, I’m no longer disposed to put up with crap.
My trust in God has deepened. The Lord has proven His faithfulness to me over and over.

The Bible tells us to put away all anger and bitterness. Freeing myself from self-recriminations has made a world of difference in being able to move forward and forge a new, happier life. If you’ve been carrying anger toward yourself, try making your own lists ... what things you're angry about, and how you choose to forgive yourself. I hope reading about my experience will help you move forward.

Wishing you every happiness,

Author

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How to Help a Loved One in an Abusive Relationship

11/12/2019

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"No one teaches us how to support a friend in peril. Whether it’s after a divorce, a miscarriage, a job loss, or the death of a child, people mean well, but the wrong words can come burbling forward," writes Lizbeth Meredith.

Lizbeth has had extensive experience with this subject, being an abuse victim herself, and then working with the abused and their families. The following paragraphs are an excerpt from her video course, How to Help When Your Friend is Being Abused. I've reviewed this course and know it's applicable to helping a loved one or family member who is a victim of domestic abuse. Here's Lizbeth's advice:

One of the most challenging roles is supporting a loved one who is being abused in an intimate relationship. Because too often, after your loved one discloses awful truths to you in confidence and commits to leaving the abuser, the tide changes. The abusive partner demonstrates remorse. Apologies are made. Flowers are sent. Behaviors temporarily improve. And just like that, your friend softens her story, maybe recants it, or breaks contact with you altogether. Until the next act of emotional, physical, or sexual violence occurs.

Your phone rings ... again.

I remember being that person, reaching out to a selective friend or two to unveil the horrors that had become my life. And then shrinking away when I decided to forgive and forget, and to maintain my marital vows. Two years after leaving my violent marriage, I became a domestic violence (DV) advocate, and witnessed first hand how stressful it was to friends and family to watch, powerless, as the person they cared about suffered.

While each abusive relationship is unique, it is typical for the process of leaving to take several attempts. “Leaving abuse isn’t a one-time event,” I used to say as a DV advocate. “It’s a process.” That process can take years to resolve.

It’s for this reason that I created a Udemy course:
How to Help When Your Friend is Being Abused
(Udemy has the world’s largest selection of video courses taught by experts in their fields.)

Designed for the empathetic friend, sister, or even supervisor of an abuse victim, the course is intended to be a tool to help stay safe and sane while making a positive difference in the life of the abused friend or relative. It’s okay to be unsure of how to support your loved one. It’s okay to get tired of hearing the same story, over and over. And it’s more than okay to learn to recognize the signs of when you need to set limits and perhaps even distance yourself from the situation.

If you don’t take care of yourself, you may find yourself saying some things that aren’t okay. Like “I’m so sick of hearing this same story, over and over. Decide already!” or “What you need to do is ___” or, “I can’t believe you’d put it with that. I would never let someone treat me like that!”

This doesn’t make you a bad person. But it does signal that it’s time to rely on reinforcements. There are professionals, domestic violence advocates, whose very job is to listen to domestic violence victims without judgment and guide the conversation to reveal dangerous or dysfunctional patterns.

Domestic violence advocates can help create a safety plan. They are invaluable for understanding local resources. And they understand it is not their job to push a victim to leave, or to advise her to stay. That important decision that comes with so many unintended consequences, must be hers.

Abuse in an intimate relationship flourishes when the victim remains isolated. Knowing what to say and where to refer can make a powerful difference in interrupting the cycle of violence.

Author

Lizbeth Meredith is a Udemy instructor and author of Pieces of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters, a memoir recently optioned for television adaptation by Cineflix. You can find her at lameredith.com

Blessings,

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Sometimes You Gotta Laugh at Yourself

10/30/2019

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As I finalize the revision of my divorce and recovery memoir, God, the Devil, and Divorce, I come across scenes that cause me to laugh at myself. I'm sharing this one with you now to let you know my story isn't all gloom and doom. I hope this little scene will amuse you too.

Scene: Doctor's office shortly after my divorce

I’m having problems with a deviated septum and see a doctor. In checking in, I notice the receptionist’s eyelashes look strange. As I’m speaking with the doctor in his office, I see photos of patients who’ve had eye lifts.

Looking younger appeals to me for several reasons.

I'm no spring chicken, and one eyelid droops a bit from the Bell’s palsy I’ve had. Looking a little younger appeals to me for several reasons. I ask him about the eye lifts, and he declares, “It’s like getting two for one. Your insurance covers the anesthesia for the septum, and while you’re under, I can do your eyes. You pay only one anesthesia cost.”

I’m guessing my ex is feeling guilty for what he’s been up to, because he agrees to pay the extra cost of the eye lift without an argument.

Because my eyes have to be bandaged for a couple of days, I stay at Mom and Dad’s. They’ve been worried for me, and I think their taking care of me is healing for all three of us. After the bandages come off, I look in the mirror and discover the eyelashes on my left eyelid are gone.

“What happened to my eyelashes?” I ask the doctor on my follow-up visit.
“I hoped you wouldn’t notice,” he says. “Your eyelid bled more than expected and I had to cauterize it, which burned off the lashes.” He points to his receptionist. “If they don’t come back, you can apply false ones like Carol’s.”

Perfect!

Blessings,

Author

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Divorce Recovery Book Review: When Happily Ever After Shatters

10/24/2019

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“It was my own personal 9/11. A beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, birds chirping, children playing—when out of nowhere disaster struck with six words uttered by my husband: “I think I’m going to leave.”

So begins Sue Birdseye’s account of the beginning of the end of her marriage in her brave book, When Happily Ever After Shatters: Seeing God in the Midst of Divorce & Single Parenting. Following her husband’s devastating announcement, Sue fights to save their marriage of seventeen years. When she finally realizes her marriage is over, she is left to pick up the pieces for herself and their five children.

My goal of this blog is to bring “Help and Healing to Divorced Christians.” That’s exactly the aim of this book, and why I want to
bring it to your attention.

The author’s honesty and devotion to God shines through in the account of her struggles to move beyond the pain of her husband’s adultery and abandonment, using scripture as a source of encouragement to herself and her readers.
I was particularly impressed by Sue’s humble confessions of failing to live up to her own worldly standards, and reassured by accounts of God’s intervention when she was clearly incapable of coping on her own. She writes, “Practically speaking, God obviously wasn’t doing my dishes for me or dealing with my sticky counters, but His presence gave me strength to face each task, whether tedious or terrifying.”
The author offers practical steps and examples of how to survive throughout each phase of her journey, from the importance of wise counsel, nurturing and guiding children, to dealing with the ex and his new wife, “the adulteress.” She doesn’t shy away from describing the temptations she must deal with, the rage she sometimes feels at the unfairness of her circumstances, her struggles to achieve forgiveness, and the challenges of parenting.
Sue writes that it was difficult to ask her friends for help, but I would like to know if she asked her kids to step up a bit. She seems to have had a large circle of supportive friends, mostly through her church. I wonder if she would have had the same support if her situation involved emotional abuse instead of infidelity.
Although I did not have children at home during my divorce, I can relate to much of Sue’s experience.

I expect if you have recently been through divorce,
you'll find her book encouraging.

Like Sue, I discovered that, through the heartbreak of divorce, I grew closer to the Lord, and my trust in Him is now secure. I understand when she concludes, “I’m much better as a healed person than I ever was as someone who was simply well.”

Blessings,

Author

Linda M. Kurth is a writer and a divorced and remarried Christian. In going through the divorce, she experienced opposing responses from the Christian community. After sharing some of those experiences in her upcoming memoir, God, the Devil, and Divorce, she's heard many stories of divorced Christians who have struggled with the same issue. This blog invites divorced Christians to tell their stories with the goal of encouraging churches to resist condemnation and become a source of healing and grace.

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An Abusive Marriage that Almost Killed Me

10/2/2019

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An email I recently received:
Hi. My name is Sara. I'm in a lot of emotional and physical pain. My story is a warning—I don't want other women to go through the same kind of abuse I'm now struggling to put behind me.
My problems began over 22 years ago. The man I would marry was handsome, good with the children, and for the first six months, we were close friends. I was wary of the relationship becoming more serious because I'd been divorced and wanted to focus on raising my children and not to date. But he put pressure on me. He lied, telling me he had other women interested in him, and I needed to make up my mind. I became scared I’d lose him, and agreed to date.

There were signs of odd behavior.

Even in the beginning, there were signs of odd behavior, but I just overlooked them. I was still a broken person, as I know now. Two years after our relationship began, we were married.
Things immediately began to change. He wanted control over food—if I didn’t get every drop of food out of a can I’d opened, he’d yell at me. I’m on long-term disability, but I allowed him to control all of my money, even though he didn’t share any of his benefits with me. After fourteen years of marriage and all kinds of abuse, I filed for divorce.

There was a deposition, and afterwards I was shocked when he professed his love, and said he would always love me. I forgave him and took him back. At first, everything was great, and then the crazy began again, worse than before—gaslighting, ignoring, blaming, and even refusing to bathe!
In March of this year, my husband assaulted me which resulted in blood clots in my brain. Doctors tell me I have a brain aneurysm that makes it harder for me to think and write. I’m now on blood thinners, and there is nerve damage to my right eye. I can’t drive at night and I have problems with depth perception.

I'm Scared. I'm lonely.

I’m scared, I’m lonely. Some Christians believe I should just separate and not divorce. I do have some Christian friends who have witnessed my trials, and are supportive of me divorcing.
I will get through this. God loves me and I know he wants better for me. I hope any of you out there, if you are lonely and abused like me, will call a Domestic Violence hotline. This is a trickle-down problem for the next generation. I hope this helps someone. It was nice to let this pain out. Love and hope to both men and women reading this who have suffered from abuse.
Sara

Note from Linda: I just received another email from Sara. I'm very stressed as I just received late in the day documents from husbands attorney. With lots of lies.
"Sara" is not this woman's real name. Unless asked to do otherwise, I don't reveal the writer's name. I'm glad she is receiving support through the Violence Hotline and some Christian friends. I confess my frustration, and yes, anger, with those Christians who believe God wants victims of abuse to remain in their marriages. On the contrary, the Lord wants all people to be safe and loved. I'm praying Sara find that safe and loving place. I hope you're praying too.

Blessings,

Author

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