After receiving the letter the man and woman met up and they decided to give their relationship a try again. Within a weeks time they had a place to live...together. No counseling was sought. The young woman had a very feeble job but within a months time she was working 40 hours again and doing well considering.
Something was still missing and since all she had wanted since she was a little girl was a family of her own, a family who was close to each other and did family things...like going to church, she asked the man if he would start going to church and he felt it was a good idea. Since she wanted to make a good impression on his family, whom she was sure hated her now, she decided to go to his childhood church, the church where his mother and father attended, and he agreed. They began to go to church. She was taken back by what she experienced at first. She came from a quiet "traditional" church where she had been nudged quite often by her grandmother to stay awake. She never had attended church consistently and knew very little truth about God. The church where they began to attend was a very upbeat church and was great at teaching, not just preaching. Now I can't say quite for sure but I believe it was that night she began to read her Bible again. She started in Genesis and read the part she had some knowledge of, but this time she never put it down.
God became her focal point and she burned with a fiery passion to know more of His Word and more about Him. She went every Sunday and when she found out there was a Wednesday night service, well she went to that too.
The young couple began to go to church in early August and on September 17th at a Wednesday night service, she felt "something" inside her stir and it was a feeling she still cannot explain well but she best described it as a "hurricane twirling inside" she felt she was about to past out, but somehow she stayed still long enough for the Pastor to make it to the front, she felt she knew the next words out of his mouth and sure enough she did. He called out to the congregation, anyone needing to lay burdens down, call on Christ and be filled with the Holy Spirit come forward now..."don't walk, run." Well she was at the front right by the Pastor so she could not run, but she leaped to her feet before him and she smiled, the hurricane stopped, the smile turned to a remarkable freedom she had never felt before and she began to weep. She didn't know why, yet at the same time she did know, it was all the years of living a lie, all the pain and shame falling to the ground beneath her feet, the feeling of being washed in the blood of Christ. Her life was never going to be the same, and that was good. Many addictions were broken that night and she poured out the remaining alcohol they had in their home.
A sermon was taught on relations before marriage...although she could not see either of them moving out away from the other, she did believe it was wrong to be together as a married couple before they were married. They planned a wedding for just three weeks later and abstained until that day.
Before the wedding something happened in their relationship that made her want to run again, this time for good reason. But she had made a commitment and she believed their relationship before that point had bound her to him and she needed to stick it out. She also believed that having been filled with the Holy Spirit she could make their relationship work even if she had to do it on her own. She did not know how to forgive and she was utterly let down and broken, she collapsed on her knees in her kitchen and pounded the floor with her fists and cried out "WHY?" then pounded the floor again and said inside herself "HOW?" and in her mind she could see her many sins and Jesus on the cross. The only difference in what she was facing that night is that it wasn't her sin that needed forgiving. She made the choice to forgive and grant grace, she was honest with herself, God and the man. She explained to him what she had just experienced and how she forgave but that she did not know how she would react in the days following or how easy it would be to trust again. She was surprised, because for the first time she knew of, she experienced a peace that passed her understanding. She did not want to throw his sin in his face and she was able to trust him more than she could have imagined, but still less than the 100% she had before.
On a beautiful day in November on the 15th of the month she was married for the 3rd time and she had the family she dreamed of, just blended...
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