As regular visitors to the site know, it’s been increasingly difficult to write Seeds Of Faith posts as I did before the ministry started growing so much, but I just don’t have the time these days. However, we do want this site to provide hope and encouragement to men and women standing on the power and promise of God’s Word for marriage restoration, so I will be making a more concerted effort to post actual testimonies from the private website here on occasion because I know little else matches the powerful encouragement of seeing how God has been (and still is) working in the lives of other men and women standing for marriage restoration, and even those who already have Restored Marriage Testimonies, which is no surprise considering the awesome revelation found in Revelation 12:10-11! And since we have truly been blessed in recent days with some very powerful After Marriage Restoration testimonies, I want to share one of them here today, which I know will be a blessing and great source of encouragement to everyone standing for marriage restoration! And more will be coming in the next few days too, so I thank our FAM Fellowship members for permission to share the word of their testimonies here as well! So be blessed and encouraged and keep in mind that God is faithful, and if He said it, HE IS GOING TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO DO IT (Isaiah 46:10-11)!

Hi Everyone,
I have come to realize more than ever that standing for marriage restoration is about transformation and not just about bringing our spouses home. I thought that when SNO came home, we could pick up where we left off; just with God in control this time. But God wants so much more for us and that has been evident in what He has been doing in our marriage. He is continuing to change me and He has been changing my husband in ways I never would have imagined. So I just want to share some praises here in hopes of encouraging someone; especially anyone who might question why they are standing for the restoration of their marriage.

One of the biggest praises I have is that God has taught me what the “forget” part means in “forgive and forget.” When I look back on our separation and the weeks leading up to it, I realize that I have forgotten the pain I felt during that time. Yes, I recall that I felt pain, but even if I tried, I could not describe all of the negative emotions I felt then because my memories of that pain have been replaced by my memories of how God revealed Himself to me in such amazing ways during that time, as well as all of the comfort He provided me.

And while we are talking about forgetting, SNO seems to have forgotten many things too! During our separation, he told me that there was no way we could ever make things work again after what we had been through; including discussions about divorce. He even re-iterated that just days before he returned home; saying that things could never be the same. And he was right…things haven’t been the same; they are better than ever before!! And I have noticed that SNO talks about last fall and the holidays as though he never left and we never spent time apart! So I praise God that He has bound up our wounds and made us new again!!

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary in Jamaica last week, and I praise God for blessing us with such a wonderful trip and for all of the quality time we were able to spend together. I’m not a morning person, but on the morning of our anniversary, God woke me up pretty early and I could not sleep. So I stepped outside on our veranda and I started praying over our marriage. And shortly after that, God blessed me with the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen in my life!

Then on the night of our anniversary, we enjoyed a private, romantic dinner out on one of the piers. It was the most romantic dinner I have ever had; complete with flowers covering the table and the entire area being covered with little candles. It was an extremely windy evening; so windy that I thought the lettuce from our salads was going to blow away! As the sun was going down, our waiter attempted to light all of our candles, and I thought to myself that there was no way any candle could stand up to that wind!! But he wouldn’t give up, and he said that if we didn’t have the candles, we would be sitting in complete darkness. Then he said that when God said there would be light, there was light and this would be no exception. I smiled because I knew immediately that those candles were going to be lit! And just a few moments later, the heavy wind stopped and every single one of the candles were lit and remained lit for our special anniversary dinner, and I felt very blessed to have only God’s special light surrounding us that night! Since the strong winds, darkness, and light represent so many things in the restoration of our marriage, words cannot even describe all of the special emotions I felt. God is so good!!

When our plane landed back in our hometown after our trip, I realized that I had a missed call from my doctor. After experiencing our second miscarriage in a row several weeks ago, my doctor became very concerned and ordered some tests to determine if there was a cause, so that it could be prevented in the future. The second miscarriage really broke my heart, but I have had so much peace knowing that God is in control. So I actually haven’t been too concerned with the tests. Although I have had a few instances in which I allowed myself to feel like a victim and to feel hopeless, God has really helped me pull past that, and I know that SNO and I will be parents in His perfect timing. So, the doctor was calling to deliver some of the test findings. They were able to determine the cause of the second miscarriage and it turns out that it was not preventable and it was the result of something that is very unlikely to happen again. So I praise God that He used this test to strengthen the hope we have that we will eventually have a successful pregnancy.

Sadly, the day we returned from our trip, one of our friends died in an automobile accident while he was driving home from work. And I have not been able to get his wife out of my thoughts and prayers because they have only been married since last October, after dating for ten years. He was a good friend of SNO’s, and I have never seen my husband so affected by someone’s death as much as he has been now. But God seems to be using this situation to really speak to him. He told me that if he ever lost me, he didn’t know how he would be able to move forward with his life. Praise God for how He has softened my husband’s heart!!! It was less than a year ago that SNO voluntarily left me and started creating a new life without me. Yet God has done such a mighty work, that he now says that he can’t imagine his life without me! However, my prayer is that if anything ever does happen to me, he will find strength and peace in God to move forward.

As a result of his friend’s death, he has started opening up to me about financial matters he never wanted to discuss with me before. He said that his friend’s death has been a wake-up call for him and he wants to make sure that he starts being more responsible. And I don’t think I can adequately communicate what a huge praise this is, because in the past, discussions concerning certain areas of our finances have always been tense and he has refused to discuss anything with me. And whenever I brought it up, we would end up in a fight. Needless to say, since he has been home, I have not brought it up and I have not even felt the need to because I now know that God is in complete control. So imagine my surprise when he set up an appointment with his brother (who is a financial advisor) to discuss previously private financial areas and asked that I attend and bring up any questions or concerns I have. Praise the Lord!!

I also praise God because He is helping SNO have more patience with me. Yet, that is not something I have ever brought up to him or even anything I have taken to God in prayer, but God knows our needs better than we do. A few days ago, we were getting ready to go somewhere, and as we were walking out the door, I noticed that SNO was being very quiet and he seemed a bit distant. I thought he was upset about something we had talked about earlier, so I apologized to him if I had upset him. And he surprised me by saying, “I’m not upset about that at all. I was just getting impatient because we are running late, but I didn’t want to say anything because I am working on improving my patience.” Praise God!! In the past, if I was running even 5 minutes late, he would be so upset with me that we would be fighting in the car and the evening would practically be ruined. So I have been working on being more on time and I praise God that He laid it on my husband’s heart to be more patient with me!

I feel like I could go on and on about all of the great things God is doing! God has been showing me what it means to be a submissive wife, as His word instructs, and I have seen so many positive results and changes in SNO, which has changed the dynamic of our relationship in such an amazing way. In addition, God has taken away SNO’s strong desire for alcohol and has replaced it with a desire to return to cycling. So every day, I am in complete awe of the changes God has made in our marriage and things keep getting better. I know there are moments when I have slipped, but I thank God that He has picked me right back up!

I hope this will provide at least a little bit of encouragement for my FAMM family. I know that God is working in all of our marriages and He will be faithful to complete the work He has started. So please remember that hope never disappoints (Isaiah 49:23 and Romans 5:5)!!

With Love,
MNO (member name omitted

Posted Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 3:41 pm in Seeds Of Faith.