"I Will Take Care of This For You" (Part 2)

Those years were very challenging, to say the least. Knowing my wife was spending time with someone else and giving him the attention that I needed was very hard for me. I would love to tell you how patient I was and how easy it was, putting this whole situation into God’s hands. But that isn’t how it was.

I remember coming home from work one day to an empty house, as I did most days, and saying to God, “I have had it! I’m going to take a shower and if my wife isn’t home by the time I’m through, I’m going to pack my bags, go out that door, and never come back.”

My wife was never home by the time I was through showering, so I was really trying to give myself permission to leave. But that day, as I got into the shower, I heard a door close – you guessed it. My wife was home. And as the hot water ran down over me I heard that voice again:

“Mike, if you will let me, I will take care of this for you!”

For the next three years I had to learn to trust God and allow Him to do what He needed to do in order to take care of my problem.

The day finally came. December 3^rd, 1981. The truth became known. My pastor was having sexual relationships with several women in our church. My wife was one of those women. It’s strange how you can know something inside yourself and it affects you a certain way, but then when you know it for sure it becomes even more devastating.

For a week I felt like a walking dead man. I hurt much more than I ever dreamed possible. When my wife came to me and asked, “Can you ever forgive me?” I looked at her and said, “I already have.” The wedding vows I had said before man and God were just as real to me then as the day I said them. Nothing could or would change that. I loved my wife.

It has taken hard work and commitment on both of our parts. God was faithful to his word:

“If you will let me, I will take care of this for you.”

It has been many, many years since Fi told me what had been going on, and we are still together. We have been blessed over the years with two sons and a daughter-in-law, all who love and serve God. Recently we were blessed again – with a beautiful grandson. What more could parents ask for?

November 29^th, 2010 Fianna and I will have been married for 35 years: a testimony to His love, His grace and His faithfulness. God truly did take care of my situation – no one else could have done what He did!

He was true to His word.