Reaffirming Our Faith in God and Our Marriage

"The LORD will keep you from all harm-He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore". Psalm 121:7-8

When you are baptized and/or confirmed in your church, you are affirming your faith in God. Growing up Lutheran, we are typically baptized as an infant and confirmed around the age of 15 or 16. Both are important aspects in the lives of most Christians. In baptism God claims us and seals us to show that we belong to Jesus Christ; God forgives us and frees us from sin and death; God unites us to Jesus in his death and resurrection; and makes us members of the church, the body of Christ; and empowers us to join Christ's mission in the world. Confirmation is the rite at which a baptized person affirms Christian belief. Mark and I, along with our children were all baptized as an infant. Me, Justine, and Bailee were all confirmed as freshman in high school. Kalli will be confirmed this spring. Mark never was confirmed, but it never really mattered to me.

Over the past 9 1/2 months, faith in God has become a big part of our individual lives and our marriage. Frankly, without our faith, we would not be where we are today. We won't think about where we could be or would be without our faith. I have said before that religion was always a big part of my life growing up and continued into adulthood. I have always tried to be involved in some way, which usually was being a Sunday School teacher. I was never as involved as I felt I should be, but I tried to instill the importance of God and Jesus to our children. I tried to instill this in Mark over the years also. He always believed, but like I said before, he never actively practiced. He did attend special occasions over the years that our children were involved in, but that was the extent of it. I even went as far as telling Mark a white lie or two over the years to get him to go to church with us. I specifically remember telling him last year on Ash Wednesday that we both had to go to church with Kalli or she would not be allowed to be confirmed. I told him it was required. He couldn't believe it, but it got him to go to church with us. By the way, looking back, he was drunk when he attended with us. I knew he needed God as much as I did, and I wanted so desperately for him to find God. Obviously that night, he didn't have some big epiphany that I had dreamed about for so long. But he attended, none the less. I think looking over at Mark in church that night, I had hope deep inside of me that he would see the light and find God. By this time, he had little to no faith in God and my faith was slowly dwindling. I had been praying for Mark for so long and praying for our marriage and I didn't see any response to those prayers. I know now that God was always listening, and he NEVER forgot about me or Mark. I only needed to be patient and still and wait for his timing. His timing occurred on April 9th, 2021, 51 days after I "tricked" Mark into going to church with Kalli and me.

Ash Wednesday February 17, 2021

On April 9th, 2021 when Mark admitted to me, he was an alcoholic and needed help, I immediately felt God's presence. I was hurt and angry, as over the next several days Mark had to face what his alcoholism had done to him and how it had affected our family. I could have left and left Mark to face the ugly truth on his own. As shocked and hurt as I was, I felt the overwhelming presence of Jesus. It was my faith that kept me going. I started praying for Mark and me out loud with Mark present. Mark turned to God and we both saw miracles occur right before our eyes. The signs were all over and neither of us could ignore them. The faith that had been lost in Mark and had been fading within me, was restored. Over the next several months, we continued to see miracles occur and every sign we knew was from God himself and it directed us both where to go. God directed Mark to go to rehab, something in the beginning he was adamant that he did not need. At rehab, Mark learned about God and how believing in a higher power, along with other Alcoholic Anonymous principles, could restore his sanity and keep him sober. Once Mark was able to call me, he called me every night to read me his daily prayer. He became a natural leader while he was in rehab. He found serenity not long after he entered rehab and he shared his story and positivity with others. For once, Mark felt like he wasn't alone in the world, and he felt he found his sense of belonging.

Once home, Mark continued to share with me what he learned in rehab. He is the one that implemented reading daily out of his AA book and me out of my Al Anon book. He is the one who purchased my books for me while he was at Hazelden. He also read or started reading a couple books while he was at rehab. Once home, we found out those books were two books that I had researched and bought and read for myself. Another one of God's divine interventions. As time went on, we discussed how telling our story could maybe help someone individually or help another couple save their marriage. Neither of us were ready to go up in front of 100's of people to tell our story, so that is when we came up with the idea of me starting this blog. I have always had a passion for writing, and this is how we wanted to start to share our story. I have had people ask if we would maybe consider doing a testimony of faith so others can hear it from us directly. We are not opposed to this and hope to possibly do this in the future.

This leads us to what we have been up to the past couple of weeks. I told you in my last blog post that Mark and I were going to do a couple of things that we felt were essential in our individual lives and in our marriage. Mark and I talked shortly after his return from rehab that renewing our vows was something we both felt was important. After Mark bought us a trip to Hawaii, we discussed it and decided that this would be a perfect place to renew our vows. Doing this in Hawaii would mean that no one else would be present. After some more discussion and last-minute arrangements. We talked and decided that reaffirming our faith was as vitally important as renewing our vows. I talked to our pastor and after some last-minute arranging, we were able to do a short ceremony reaffirming our faith in God and in one another. We were able to do this on Tuesday January 11, 2022, with Justine, Bailee, Kalli, Paislee, Elmer, Kathy, Dale, Patty, Beve, Aaron, and Avery all present. We were surprised with a bouquet for me, a boutonniere for Mark, and a special cake. After the ceremony, we all went to our house for supper and cake to celebrate. The evening was perfect and both Mark and I felt God's presence once again. If you are struggling, I promise you if you keep praying and wait patiently, you too will feel His presence. He will come to you at His timing, not yours. "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10. Stay tuned for more in my next blog post.