My name is Shirley and I blog at Mimi’s Corner. I have been married to the love of life for 38 years. We have a beautiful daughter and a gorgeous granddaughter.
I would like to tell you about a time I felt God’s love all around me.
This past February the bottom fell out of my life and I was in a very dark place. I found out that my husband was visiting pornography sites and chatting with women he had met online. He had also been having a cyber affair with an old girlfriend for 8 years who was supposed to a friend of mine. So I did what any 65 year old woman would do. I ran away from home. I packed up my car and drove 6 hours to my BFF’s place and spent the next couple of days with her. During my six hour drive to her place I spent a lot of time in prayer talking with God and listening to God. My BFF and I have known each since the 5th grade and have always been there for each other. She let me rant and rave and gave me her shoulder to cry on. She tried to keep my mind occupied by taking me shopping, to the movies, out to dinner, etc. I had sent an email to my husband letting him know I was okay, where I was and that I didn’t know when I would be home. I asked him to please not call me as I would not take his calls and I also told him that I would let him know when I would be back to pack up my things. I was absolutely devastated.
The weather was really bad that weekend and I had been checking road conditions as I was planning to drive on to my daughter’s place in Vancouver, WA and I had several mountain passes to drive over. So I left my BFF’s place on Sunday morning as that looked like it was going to be my best day to travel.
Although it had snowed the night before the passes were open. There was a little ice but I knew that if I was careful I would be okay. Once I got over the passes it started to rain/snow again. I’m driving along listening to my praise music, crying and praying. I’m asking God why all this is happening and then I saw it. Along the right side of the road was a double rainbow and it was absolutely beautiful. The rainbow seemed to be following me and the next thing I knew the end of one of the rainbows was there in front of me. I had never seen the end of a rainbow before and as I drove through the rainbow my car was filled with all these brilliant colors. I felt God speaking to me and telling me that He loved me and everything was going to be okay, that all I needed to do was to trust in Him.
I traveled on my daughter’s place. She had called me several times while I was on the road to make sure I was okay as her father had called her and told her what he had done and that he was very worried about me. He also asked for her forgiveness for the hurt he had caused. She told him she needed some time, that she would be praying for God’s leadership, and that she loved him.
I spent 7 weeks with my daughter and her family. But I knew that I needed to go back home. During the time I was there my husband had started attending Celebrate Recovery at our church. He was also in counseling with our pastor. We had not spoken verbally during this time but had communicated through text messages on Skype. The kids had scheduled our granddaughter’s Passport 2 Purity ceremony during spring break and my husband wanted to come up for that. She had no idea about any of the problems Papa and Mimi were having and I did not want her to know so I agreed that he could come. My daughter was concerned about me but agreed it was best if we tried to stay with the original plan of us both being there for the ceremony.
As I said before I knew that I needed to go back home so we drove back together. Once we were home I think he expected me to act as if nothing had happened and that everything was status quo. I began to withdraw. We lived in the same house, slept in the same bed but that was it. I didn’t want to talk to him and I definitely did not want him to touch me.
One day as I was wallowing in my own self pity and feeling sorry for myself I felt God speaking to me again. He asked me what I was doing and had I forgotten the promise He had made me that everything would be okay as long as I trusted him.
I contacted my pastor and asked if I could meet with him. I poured my heart out to him and he suggested that we go to counseling together and gave me the name of a Christian counselor. So when I got home I called and made an appointment with her. I also sent my husband an email explaining what I had done and that if he wanted to go with me we could get through this together with God’s help. He agreed.
Our counselor was absolutely wonderful. Our first session was the two of us. Then we each had our individual time with her and then back together as a couple. During one of our sessions I told her about the rainbow and God’s promise to me. She told me about a song, God Put A Rainbow In The Sky. One day I decided to look up the lyrics to the song and here they are:
God put a rainbow in the sky
A rainbow in the sky
A rainbow in the sky
God put a rainbow in the sky
A rainbow in the sky
A rainbow in the sky
It looked like the sun wasn’t
gon’ shine no more
Oh, God put a rainbow in the sky.
I started attending Celebrate Recovery with my husband. We are working through our problems and trusting in God. Oh we still have days that we don’t like each other. I am learning to trust again and I am no longer holding my feelings inside.
God’s love got me through some very dark days and without His Unfailing Love I would be in a very different place now.
Hey Wes,
thanks for sharing this. I like it.
I love that it is a call to the unshakable foundation that the Gospel MUST be in our lives rather than just behavior modification.
Christian counseling Northgate