The Reason This Blog Exists

I Have a Motive Here

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing...Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away...And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

                               1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Some of the points I'm trying to make with my story are to give hope, to encourage, to strengthen, and to point people in the direction of God's restorative truth. 

I've shared quite a bit of our painful journey so far. I've connected with many people who have expressed their thankfulness to know that someone else has gone through similar things and experienced healing and redemption in their marriage. 

I've made personal phone calls to various readers, connecting them with Christian marriage counselors. 

I've written many emails to readers who were thankful that I took the time to speak with them and to pray for them.

While I do want your marriage to heal, and for you to see the power of forgiveness, it would be useless if I did so without love.

I'm not telling you this in a boastful way. I'm telling you in order to make a point.

Everything my wife and I have done with this blog and with all of the connections we've made in order to support and to encourage, would be meaningless if we did not have love.

The underlying purpose behind everything we do here is because we love you.

I want you to hear and to absorb that right now. I love you. My wife loves you. We don't know you, but we understand and feel the heartache you've experienced. We don't want you to walk this journey alone. 

Simple Ways to Give this Holiday Season

First and foremost, I hope you are able and willing to give the gift of forgiveness to someone who has wronged you.

That is one of the greatest gifts we celebrate this holiday season. In Advent, we celebrate the anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah - the gift of God to humanity - Emmanuel which means God with us. The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus will forever remain the pivotal and most important gift in all of human history.

We give gifts in the Christmas season to celebrate and remember the gift we've been given (Jesus, grace, forgiveness, hope, life, an eternal future).

Here are a couple of places my wife and I like to give:

CURE International provides life-changing medical procedures to children in places where medical care is not possible. I encourage you to at least look at their website and see what they have to offer.
Here is their link: https://cure.org/

World Vision provides support to impoverished children all over the world from child sponsorship, to educational supplies, to disaster relief, to food, to medical supplies, to clean water, to almost anything you can imagine. Their gift catalog enables you to choose specific items as well as gifts that have matching grants to multiply your donation.

Both of these organizations give well over 90% (I don't know the exact number off the top of my head) of your donation to the people who actually need your help. Very little goes to overhead costs.

Here is World Vision's link: http://www.worldvision.org/

Both of these organizations also bring the message of Jesus with the work that they do.

We would like you to consider helping support other marriages that are going through similar circumstances by committing to praying for softened hearts, forgiveness, repentance, and the full restoration and commitment of marriages.

My wife and I thank you for reading our posts. We wish you and your family a blessed and beautiful Christmas and New Year!