I have not had that experience. I’m glad you did.
“I have not had that experience. I’m glad you did.”
I’ll give you a couple of anecdotes that may encourage you, I hope.
Anne was married to a “Christian” man who was very bright, but gradually and apparently losing his mind. She submitted to him in Christ for years. He did not believe in birth control so she had one baby after another, patiently and lovingly caring for each. He gradually became so mental he became sort of incapable of work. Convinced that Y2K was going to wipe out debt, he had them all live on charge cards and tramped her cross country to one fad after another. She did not complain. She did all she was asked. Y2K came and went; bankruptcy ensued. Caring for all those kids and looking ridiculously beautiful every day, she worked and waited and prayed. He got a job here for two days, here for a week. They lost all housing and then their car went kaput. A family friend finally gave them a car. He’d wake her in the middle of the night with his latest rant when she got almost no sleep. He started taking off for days, leaving her and the kids in a mobile home occupied by his actively diagnosed schizophrenic friend, who hated the kids and was extremely weird. She’d often go camp in the summer just to live in a campground for a few days to live more safely. She had seven kids by now! She went to church, she fed and bathed the kids somehow, she home schooled them, she did not complain.
I NEVER HEARD HER COMPLAIN. She was faithful.
Eventually he disappeared completely. The church took her into its Fellowship Hall and the pastor’s wife cared for the kids while she found a full time job. Only after a couple of years did she get divorced. In absentia, because the lunatic could not be found.
From the male side, I know a theologian whose wife went batty. She stays in her room most of the time, refusing medication, refusing help. He raises their four kids with no apparent bitterness. He tries various attempts with his wife at various times. She disappears sometimes, then reappears. He’s had various professionals in. She won’t meet with them, or she will for a bit then she refuses. She simply lives as a hermit in their home, ranting occasionally, accusing him of various things, screwing up the kids big time.
He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t leave her. He prays for her. He provides for her. He fulfills as best he can the role of dad and mom.
Both of these people, and several others I have known over the years, put me to shame and inspire me to overcome the evil in my life.