I’ve recently come across several heartbreaking stories. There’s a prayer request up at one of my online boards for a Mrs. P whose husband abruptly decided to leave her and their 10 children (that’s not a typo) and apparently, if nothing changes, the law is written in such a way that he will only owe his wife $250 a month in child support.
Just wrap your brain around that for a moment.
At the same time, someone pointed out a weblog where a different women is in remarkably similar circumstances, only further into the process. I can’t even begin to describe her case in a blog post, only that I was shocked when I read some of the legal decisions by the judge, the guardian-ad-litem, the lawyers… If this is the way our “justice” system works, then I no longer have any faith in it.
Now last year, there was a similar story from one of the Two Sleepy Mommies at their weblog, where the husband apparently took leave of his senses and began the same story (affair, departure, etc) only it had a different ending, and the husband credits the prayers of hundreds of unknown readers for his turnaround.
It’s easy to blog and say “Families are under attack in these days!” but sometimes, isn’t it true that we’re the ones attacking ourselves? No one forced those men to react to pressure by destroying their own families, and certainly not some of the vicious tactics mentioned (two of the three stories involve men defaulting on the mortgage payments so the house where their children live gets foreclosed.) The families in all three stories must have been dealing with different struggles, but there are positive and negative ways to respond to struggle.
Our responsibility as human beings is to ask ourselves, with regard to our own struggles, “What is the most loving way to respond to this crisis?”
And from a distance, I’d like to request prayers specially for all three families, but in general for all families in danger of tearing themselves apart. May God have mercy on the children of those families. May families in crisis find the support they need to overcome the blockages in their paths.
Thank you for posting the story with a happy ending. It’s making this non-cryer sob. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband, but things like this bring me up short when I start to take him for granted. While I trust him completely, I still realize that anything could happen when two sinful people decide to commit their lives to one another. I think it’s less shocking that so many marriages end in divorce and more shocking that so many people make it. It’s a wonderful testament to grace.
Jane, thanks for the call to prayer. May the Lord reach His hand toward those hurting and bring relief, and may we, His people, look around to see if He wants us to be part of the solution for the troubled ones in our midst…even if that solution mostly involves concerted prayer. God does change lives, though not always in ways we expect.
One of your Muse friends came by my blog to comment on your book. I was so touched to read her testimony of God’s way out for her — which was to turn terrible circumstances into an incredible blessing. May we each develop eyes to see things through His filter so that we can praise Him at all times (and anyway!). I confess it’s not always easy, but I know that in the praises, I ultimately find victory.
praying for these families!