Remember when you were newly married? Loving your bridegroom so much that you would follow him through a desert into uncharted territory? Just being with your spouse was satisfying enough because the love was so fresh and so sweet!

My mom has told me numerous times, “I loved your dad so much when we were first married that I would have been happy if our home was a tent. I was willing to follow him anywhere.” Her young, hopeful love filled her heart. Her devotion as a young bride seemed unshakable.

Yet, as the years went on, the harshness of life chipped away at my parents’ marriage. Unchecked and unrepented sin ravaged both of their hearts. The desert that once represented hopeful adventure was now a harsh reality of intense heat and dehydration. Devotion waned. Love was suffocated. Though my parents never officially divorced, they were separated for twenty years when my father died suddenly of a heart attack in 1998. 

To read this post in its entirety, click below: