Three years ago my husband and I experienced
a bump in the road in our relationship.
These bumps are not uncommon in any marriage; any marriage is susceptible
to have hardship. As I was reflecting on
how we got through it the other day it dawned on me. It was by the Grace of God. At that present time I was very, very angry….enraged
is really the only way to describe it. I
felt so helpless at this point of my life.
I have never traveled down this road before and I honestly had no idea
how to fix our marriage. But after a few
weeks of trying to figure out how I would fix our relationship, or how my
husband would fix our relationship I realized that I couldn't fix it. He couldn't fix it. Only God could fix it.
A few months went by and we were
still struggling to get back on track. I couldn't understand why this was happening. I didn't understand how our relationship
could be in such turmoil…..I felt as though someone had died….that’s how much
of a loss there was in our marriage. I
remember we would fight. We would fight like it was a fight to the death….it
was really bad….I kept throwing things in my husband face….until one day. I was reading in the Bible about the grace of
God. This particular day I was contemplating
leaving my husband…and I opened my Bible to Titus 2:11 and it reads “ The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” On this particular day when
I was doing the convicting….God convicted me.
I was being taught that on this day when I felt that our
relationship didn't deserve “my mercy” or “my grace” I realized that I was
undeserving of God’s grace and his mercy….and that’s a scary thought. James 2:13 says “For judgment is without mercy to one who has
shown no mercy.” I thought to
myself that day long and hard; that I was undeserving…I was undeserving of God’s
grace and his mercy. I am flawed just
like everyone else I am no different. I
began to think about that, every single day of my life, I make mistakes and God
still shows his mercy and grace to me.
So what did I do? I decided to be obedient to God. I wanted to be more
Christ like so I decided that I would be merciful, show grace and compassion to
where maybe it wasn't deserved, because I need the grace and mercy of Christ.
Although I
made up my mind to be obedient to the Lord, it took time. It wasn't a miraculous
overnight change. I began to fast, and I
cried, sometimes a couple times a day.... and I kept myself in prayer and in the
word. Yes I was still upset at that time, but because I decided to show grace
and mercy like Christ shows to me I became less and less angry and God began to
restore our marriage. God honors us when we are obedient to him….being obedient
comes with great reward. We are now blessed with a happy and healthy marriage. Both
my husband and I changed with the help of the Lord. God used this as a learning
tool for us. To have greater value of
our marriage to have a greater value for each other.We are still learning every
day. Just because we went through a
hardship doesn't mean that we won’t go through one again. If we happen to reach
another stumbling block we will have the proper tools that the Lord gave us
three years ago to navigate through it. Mark
10:9” Therefore what God has
joined together, let no one separate.”
What I
learned is that not one of us is perfect.
We all were created from sin, yet God loves each and every one of
us. What is so amazing about God is that
he knows every single facet of our lives, yet he loves us in our entirety. So today show a little grace and mercy to
someone you may think might not deserve it. Obey God and he will bless your life more than you can ever imagine. “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
