This week I was blessed with yet another hair appointment with a dear sweet client and friend. I have been enriched with relationships short and sweet, but also those that have been on my 13 year scissor journey from East Side Hair to ownership, and ultimately to here at home. I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment (well most) and the friendships that have blossomed through a foil or simple haircut. I have seen kids grow up, young couples become engaged, marriages begin, babies born and families grow. Being the social person that I am, this career has been perfect for me. I never realized how perfect until this week. You see, God has brought me on a painful and public journey for many reasons, but also for important lessons and building blocks for my faith character.
I value each of my few clients and have had the pleasure of sharing with each of them about God's faithfulness in my life and within my marriage. On the other hand, they too have had opportunity to laugh, cry, rejoice, and grieve in my chair. This week, my client and I grieved and embraced one another because of satan's slimy deceits, attacks, and victories.
When I hear of the devil attacking at a husbands heart, mind, or addiction it makes my blood boil and heart break for the marriage and the broken wife. My stomach twists and turns at the raw feeling and reminders of what it felt like at the point of confession and defeat in my own marriage. I listened to my friend share her horror story from the past few months this week and wanted to promise happy days and dry eyes, but knew that would only be lying. This time it was the bottle that crept in and took victory over a mans life leaving his spouse empty, hopeless, and full of deceit and broken trust. Trust that takes years to build and minutes to crush. Memories that turn sour and the future that looks bleak.
I listened as I heard fear, uncertainty, brokenness, loss, and pain weep into the very hands that held her husbands years earlier as they shared vows and celebrated life together. My heart sank as more truth was shared and tears shed. I knew this pain. I knew that feeling of "Are the tears EVER going to stop?" I knew the emotion that cuts to the bones and leaves you completely cold and empty.
BUT...
There is hope.
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12
It says in Revelation 7:17, that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. I believe it. I've witnessed it. And my prayer is that in the darkest moments of this broken wife's days, she feels God wiping her every tear shed...one after another.
It angers me to see satan winning over too many marriages and families. I see it too often and pray it another way. The lives of young children are shaken up as parents split and misconceptions begin to sink into their thoughts. Trust that was solid as steel cut and bent to an ugly tangled mess making it sore to the human eye. Temptation, when given in to, becomes the barricades within relationships and leads to a series of spiraling decisions to destruction. And, if not won over, the devil celebrates at another victory of defeat.
Today at church, Pastor Kurt was teaching about prayer and the need to use our shield more often.
"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." Ephesians 6:16,18
I find myself having a daily dialog with God about all the little things in my life at all times of the day. I pray fervently when My Honey is traveling for work and temptations creep in at his toes. You can't delete all the negative in the world and addiction will always be there waiting to devour it's next prey. I pray for his mind, his eyes, and for his shield to be strong to fight against the flaming arrows satan aims his direction and also mine. No doubt satan attacks the weak and when my heart is hurting and trust seems thin, the attack will be near. Yes, we pray and ask that God will give us that "force field" around us but evil is everywhere.
But we are told to pray on ALL occasions...so are we?
"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5:13,16
When I hear of another broken marriage I find that anger is one of the first emotions I struggle with in my heart. It angers me to know that evil is creating too much pain in Christian marriages and families. So I strongly believe our prayers need to be more frequent, more desperate, and pleading with God to stand between the temptations of life and His people in the cross fire of evil arrows.
Wives, we need to be praying for our husbands eyes, minds, and their hearts to be in line with God's divine plan for marriage. Praying that the whispers of lies to become silent and that temptations become weak. We need to be praying for our young fathers as they travel and work to become the next generation of believing leaders setting examples for our kids. Praying for addictions to be broken and healing to be found. We need to be praying for our husbands to take up the shield of prayer and stand firm in the truth of God's word.
This will not be a guarantee that pain will never be felt within the vows, but we are promised that doors will be opened if we knock. Let's stand together and knock down a few doors for the marriages that are experiencing lost hope, chilling emptiness, and deceit. Let's pray that men (and women too) can be strong enough to resist the evil prowling outside the marriage boundaries. Pray for marriages to be strong enough to stand the test of addiction, temptation, and broken roads.
And in the end, find restoration, healing, and God's beautiful faithfulness that "He will overcome."
I pray that my friend can feel God's arms wrapped ever so tightly around her as she weeps and grieves for the marriage that seems hopeless. I pray that she, and so many others a like, can feel God's warmth and love carrying her through the darkest valley. I pray that she can allow herself to cry, laugh, and soak in God's richness and truth. I pray for healing in her husbands life and for addiction to be broken and the bonds of oppression in his life to be set free. I pray this for so many others as well and in the end that God WILL be glorified.
Even if it starts with a few foils, hair color, friendship and conversation.
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