From Redemption to Restoration

Exactly one year ago today, my husband who I had been with for almost 22 years, walked out of our marriage for someone that hadn’t even been on earth as long as we had been together. This abandonment and desertion of our covenant bond left me shattered and devastated. For many months, only my closest friends and family, along with my pastor, knew of what was happening in my life and in my marriage.

Over the next few months, my family and friends partnered with me in prayer. Some of my closest friends fasted and prayed with me for weeks at a time in the hopes that my marriage would be redeemed. That was my one word for 2020…redeemed.

I created a vision board, journaled, wrote out my prayers and begged God to repair my marriage and bring my best friend home, but instead my husband continued in his affair and a couple of months prior to the end of the year had a baby with his affair partner. This may leave many people thinking that God doesn’t listen or that God doesn’t answer prayers, but He does and He does so in such a better way that we could ever imagine. Yes, my marriage appears to be ending. Yes, I am in the process of a divorce that appears to be going nowhere, but I have had a closeness to God like no other time in my before and that makes it all worth it!

God has shown me the many blessings in my life and he has used me to show that even when everything wrong happens, one can still find joy. I can be a help to others that are suffering as I am by sharing that hope with them. Wow! To know that I can help others who may have experienced the worst year of their life in 2020 is an amazing blessing. From the beginning, my biggest prayer was “Lord, do not let me be bitter.” This is one prayer He has definitely answered. Starting day 1, he has continually answered this prayer because even though I have forgiven, one proud Facebook post of him, her and the new baby and all the gushing comments is enough to send me right back to the trap of anger and bitterness, but God…

God says, “I have better and I have more for you.” So in 2020, God did redeem me. One synonym for redeem is exchange. God exchanged my vision and what I thought would be best in my life for a new, better vision. A vision that encompasses my God given passions like travel, meeting new people, experiencing amazing places and things, learning about different cultures or in the case of US travel learning about the best parts of each state.

This brings me to this anniversary and the year 2021. This year my one word is “restored”.

verb (used with object), re·stored, re·stor·ing.