Lie #3 Cont. - day 95

 

 Lie #3- If I had been a better Christian, my marriage would still be together. 

A truth we often forget- our world is a battle ground between good and evil, and evil wins out most of the time. Whenever I say this, people look absolutely shocked. "How can you say that!" "Don't you think people are mostly good?"

No. I don't. 

In our prayer to St. Michael the Archangels, we ask for protection against "Satan and all the evil spirits that prowl the world seeking the ruin of souls." And from now on, when you think of evil spirits, I don't want you to think of shifty, paranormal beings. I want you think think of bad men, who prowl the world looking to use, and ruin, the hearts and souls of the women they entrap. 

I know you want to argue with me and say, "But Peyton, if I had prayed harder, if I had walked more closely to God, if I had saved my virginity until marriage, I wouldn't have ever found myself in this situation to begin with."

Before I debunk all that religious abuse that you have internalized and now shame yourself with, let me remind you: God love you, even though you are divorced. God knows what happened to you, and it breaks His heart. When you were sobbing on your bedroom floor, Christ was sobbing with you, because nothing hurts a loving Father like seeing His daughter in pain. You have been in His arms, and you remain there.

When you start to shame yourself with the lie that your lack of faith lead you to divorce, hear me say: none of that is true. You can be a woman of fierce faith, and find yourself in the same devastating heartbreak as a nonbeliever. Look in your local church community, and you will hear story after story of a woman rooted in Christ, who's husband cheated on her. Or was fraudulent with their money. Or was abusing drugs and alcohol. No one, not even the holiest of holy women, is impenetrable to the evils of bad men.