I Almost Ruined My Marriage

At some point in my life, I prayed to God, believing that one day, I would be swept off my feet by my prince charming. I remember praying at a young age to be married to a man that loves God and has the fear of God in him. I knew what I wanted, or at best, I thought I knew what I wanted. Most times, we wish and pray for things without understanding that our wishes aren't as simple as they seem and may probably have their implications. To pray for a prince charming, you need to be a princess beauty. The prince charming also has expectations of his bride and you need to fit that mould. Without knowing it, I carried a lot of baggage into my marriage. This load of baggage was capable of ruining my marriage. Wait a minute, did I say capable of ruining my marriage? Scratch that. This load of baggage almost ruined my marriage. In Proverbs 14: 1, the Bible says, "a wise woman builds her home but a foolish woman tears it down with her hands." Did you notice what the Bible says in that Scripture? The foolish woman does not need any kind of help pulling down her home. She can do it all by herself. Her own actions or inaction are enough to completely ruin her home. At some point in my life, I was this foolish woman. I know this probably sounds shocking but 'foolish' was what I was at that time. Sadly, there abound many foolish women who have destroyed their marriages and homes. Some others are in the process of destroying their marriages. Some marriages are being endured rather than enjoyed. Some married people are struggling to put the pieces of their homes together while some feel that it can't be put back together again. It is unfortunate that some women are completely at a loss of what to do to save their ailing marriages. Some others who know what to do to save their homes allow pride stop them from doing it. My journey in the early years of marriage was quite painful and enduring. Nothing I knew seemed to make sense anymore. All the seemingly harmless habits I got away with in the course of my life as a single became a challenge in marriage. When you marry a near-perfect man like I did, your flaws become so glaring. The sad truth is that before I got married, I never considered these habits as flaws. Have you ever found yourself saying things like: "This is how I have always been and people accepted and liked me"? Have you also found yourself saying to your spouse, "Hey, you met me like this; why is this now a big deal"? Oh, I said this a thousand and one times. I just couldn't understand how anyone will want me to change. Who I was had taken me so many years to become, so why was I supposed to change just because I got married. Hmmm, that was a difficult one for me to crack. In this book, I will be sharing my journey so far, what I had to learn in the process and who I have become through my experiences.

It is possible to find true love through dating. In True Love Dates, Debra Fileta encourages singles not to "kiss dating goodbye" but instead to experience a season of dating as a way to find real love. Through powerful, real-life stories and Fileta's personal journey, this book offers profound insights from the expertise of a professional counselor. Christians are looking for answers to finding true love. They are disillusioned with the church that has provided little practical application in the area of love and relationships. They're bombarded by Christian books that shun dating, idolize courting, fixate on spirituality, and in the end, offer little real relationship help. True Love Dates provides honest help for dating by providing a guide into vital relationship essentials. Debra is a professional Christian counselor who reaches millions with her popular blog, Truelovedates.com, and her book offers sound advice grounded in Christian spirituality. She delivers insight, direction, and counsel when it comes to entering the world of dating and learning to do it right the first time around. Drawing on the stories and struggles of hundreds of young men and women who have pursued the search for true love, Fileta helps readers bypass unnecessary pain while focusing on the things that really matter in the world of dating.

Joshua Harris's first book, written when he was only 21, turned the Christian singles scene upside down...and people are still talking. More than 800,000 copies later, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, with its inspiring call to sincere love, real purity, and purposeful singleness, remains the benchmark for books on Christian dating. Now, for the first time since its release, the national #1 bestseller has been expanded with new content and updated for new readers. Honest and practical, it challenges cultural assumptions about relationships and provides solid, biblical alternatives to society's norm.Clear, stylish typeset, with user-friendly links to referenced Scripture.

"Beautifully paced . . . heartbreaking and hilarious."—USA Today Augusten Burroughs meets Mary Karr: a deeply funny and wickedly entertaining family memoir. The youngest of four daughters in an old, celebrated St. Louis family-- of prominent journalists and politicians on one side, debutantes and equestrians on the other-- Jeanne Darst grew up hearing stories of past grandeur. And the message she internalized as a young girl was clear: While things might be a bit tight for us right now, it’s only temporary. Soon her father would sell the Great American Novel and reclaim the family’s former glory. The Darsts move from St. Louis to New York, and Jeanne’s father writes one novel, then another, which don’t find publishers. This, combined with her mother’s burgeoning alcoholism, lead to financial disaster and divorce. And as Jeanne becomes an adult, she is horrified to discover that she is not only a drinker like her mother, but a writer like her father. At first, and for years, she embraces both activities— and until she can stop putting drinking and writing ahead of everything else, it’s a questionable choice. Ultimately, Darst sets out to discover whether a person can have the writing without the ruin, whether it’s possible to be both sober and creative, ambitious and happy, a professional author and a parent. Filled with brilliantly flawed, idiosyncratic characters and punctuated by Darst’s irreverent eye for absurdity, Fiction Ruined My Family is a lovingly told, wickedly funny portrait of an unconventional life.

As a young bride, Jennifer Smith couldn’t wait to build her life with the man she adored. She dreamed of closeness, of being fully known and loved by her husband. But the first years of marriage were nothing like she’d imagined. Instead, they were marked by disappointment and pain. Trapped by fear and insecurity, and feeling totally alone, Jennifer cried out to God: What am I doing wrong? Why is this happening to us? It was as if a veil had descended between her and her husband, and between her and God—one that kept her from experiencing the fullness of love. How did Jennifer and her husband survive the painful times? What did they do when they were tempted to call it quits? How did God miraculously step in during the darkest hour to rescue and redeem them, tearing down the veil once and for all? The Unveiled Wife is a real-life love story; one couple’s refreshingly raw, transparent journey touching the deep places in a marriage that only God can reach. If you are feeling disappointment or even despair about your marriage, the heart-cry of this book is: You are not alone. Discover through Jennifer’s story how God can bring you through it all to a place of transformation.

A capable, intelligent, and virtuous woman - who can find her?I have always wondered how anyone could have all the virtues and qualities as detailed in the book of Proverbs 31.This woman seems to have everything all under control; she's a great wife, mother, she manages her home, she owns businesses, she cooks, she sews and the list goes on. What she doesn't seem to do is get tired.Our society most of the time portrays womanhood as weak, feeble, unintelligent, naïve about financial matters, vain, clueless and the list goes on, but the Bible describes exactly the opposite. This woman is an embodiment of inner strength, beauty, and brains, responsible and accountable, dependable, supportive, excellent, understanding, wise, prudent, frugal etcetera.In 2019, I started an online journey with thousands of women called "The Proverbs 31 Woman Challenge". This book was birthed as an aftermath of the challenge and comes from the place of intentionality and prayers towards becoming the Proverbs 31 Woman. I want to reassure you that you can become the Proverbs 31 Woman and even more!This book is a practical guide with daily activities to help you become a Virtuous Woman.

If he had been with me everything would have been different... I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts. What they do not know—the cause of the argument—is crucial. So let me tell you...

I wanted to ask for a divorce. Instead of the fight I expected, she agreed—with a few stipulations, all of which revolved around our son leaving for college in the fall. Keeping those promises would be a challenge, no doubt. But all I had to do was uphold my end of the deal then walk away without a backward glance. Somewhere along the way, our charade became my reality. With each day that passes, I realize time is once again my enemy. I can’t lose her a second time. I’ll never walk away—she healed my soul. Saving Grace is now my only hope.