You Won't Believe Where I've Been

This blog will be somewhat vague in order to protect any one person's identity. Please understand this as I try to tell this story with little to no details.

I've been wanting to blog about this for a long time, but I felt that out of respect and privacy for the couple, I could not. However, after yesterday, I feel it necessary to tell their story in order to deter others from going down the same path. At the same time, it is a wonderful story of God's grace and answered prayers.

I know a couple. They live in another state. Dear, dear friends of both my husband and me. Several months ago, we received devastating news that the male (I will just refer to him as "the male") had been arrested. I will not tell you the exact charge, but it was a crime of sexual nature involving the internet.

Shock. More shock. We were in shock. We could not believe it. This guy was a Christian man with more morals in his pinky than in my whole body. How could this have happened? Well, I think we know how. Internet porn. That's where it all started.

An interesting side note to this story: The day before we received the phone call about his arrest, I wrote in my journal the following words: "Today I pray for the Lord to send someone my way for me to help. A wife who needs ministering to." The very next morning the phone rang with the news of "the male's" arrest. I knew who I had to talk to. I had to talk to his wife.

Six days later, I called his wife and from that point on, we have been talking weekly. Her life has been changed forever. And I mean changed down to the smallest detail. She quickly filed for divorce as I think we all would, but after much prompting from the Holy Spirit, felt the Lord calling her to stay with her husband. Her church family and her family have pretty much shunned her for this decision.

So back to yesterday. Yesterday was his sentencing. My hubby and I went. None of his wife's family came. How sad. I sat next to her while the sentence was handed down to her husband.

Although he will spend years in prison, the sentence was lighter than we all expected, so we are praising God for that. I am also praising God because when we exited the courtroom, the few family that was there, along with the lawyer, all joined hands in a circle and "the male" led us in prayer! He had just been sentenced and he was leading us in prayer. Amazing.

They are hoping to write a book about their experience which is definitely not over yet. His wife will have alot of hard days ahead of her, but she is a strong Christian woman determined to make their marriage work.

My hubby has been strongly affected by this whole matter as you can imagine. And sitting in a courtroom listening to a lawyer explain how this slippery slope was all started in motion by internet pornography was a sobering experience.

Husbands, this is a serious addiction. Don't think the above story could not be about you and your wife. It could be. It could easily be.

Wives, do not for a moment think you are "overreacting" to his pornography use. This is a serious addiction with serious consequences.