Quote from Forum Archives on July 18, 2000, 9:33 am

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

This might touch home with someone on this list, so I've cut out just the
devotional part for your consideration.

Brother Brian

--- PCCWeb Daily Devotional <[email protected]> wrote:
> Date: 18 Jul 2000 08:55:07 -0000
> Reply-to: Trish Dukeman <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>
> From: PCCWeb Daily Devotional <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Daily Devotional for Tuesday, July 18, 2000
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> FAMILIES TORN
>
> Proverbs 10:12 - Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all
> wrongs. (NIV)
>
> While reading the prayer requests, I often see a distraught family
> member asking for prayer for a loved one with an addiction. I would like
> to share with them one of the most painful times I remember. As I write,
> the memories bring back the tears.
>
> It happened five years ago. My family was torn apart by Satan. My
> husband had become distant. He was staying out late at night. He quit
> his job. The money I made barely covered the bills, yet nine times out
> of ten it didn't go for bills. It went for his cocaine addiction. He
> would be gone for weeks and then show up on my couch shaking and going
> through withdrawals. I didn't know where to turn. I kept trying to work
> and take care of the kids as best I could.
>
> I couldn't take any more, so I had to ask him to leave our home. Friends
> and family were telling me that I had done the right thing and several
> were even nice enough to go and pick up the packet of papers that I
> needed to file with the courts to get a divorce. Every time I would
> start to fill the forms out, I was overcome by such a feeling of loss. I
> put them in a drawer and waited.
>
> I didn't hear from my husband for over seven months. I didn't know if he
> was dead or alive. I was afraid I would get a phone call saying he was
> found in the street. I knew I still loved him. I was being pushed to
> divorce him, yet I couldn't. One day I was thumbing through the local
> paper making my grocery list. As I turned the obituary page I gasped. My
> last name was there in big black letters. I trembled as I tried to focus
> on the column, my heart racing. It was my mother-in-law. She had died of
> a heart attack. I was relieved, but still deeply saddened. I felt for my
> husband's pain. I didn't know what to do, so I went out and bought a
> card and signed our names to it and sent it to my husband at his dad's
> home.
>
> I also started praying. I prayed that my husband would be delivered from
> the cocaine that seemed to possess him, and that we would become a
> family again. That went over well with everyone. They couldn't
> understand why I would love someone who had caused me so much pain. One
> day I was reading my Bible, and a verse just seemed to jump from the
> page. It was Proverbs 10:12: "Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love covers
> all offences." I found great comfort in that. Love covers all offences.
> I read it often. I prayed and I waited.
>
> Right before Christmas there was a knock on my door. It was my husband.
> He asked if he could come in. There was something different about him.
> He seemed very afraid. He was trying to stop doing the drugs and was
> sick. He didn't know where to turn or what to do. I told him that I
> loved him.
>
> The road was long and hard, but today, five years later, my husband is
> still clean and sober. He is a Christian and gives testimony. There was
> much pain and hurt to overcome in our marriage, but love covered it. I
> know that this was one of God's many miracles. For those who are going
> through trying times, and especially those who are dealing with a loved
> one's drinking or drug problem, don't give up hope. Put yourself out of
> harm's way; it is okay to love from a distance. Hit your knees and pray
> for God to deliver and he will do it.
>
> Prayer: Dear Lord, evil is all around us. Many families are being torn
> apart by drug and alcohol abuse. Lord, bring those families the hope
> that you have given others: hope for a future. Deliver those lives from
> the evil that seems to control them. Bring peace to those who love them
> and who wait and watch helplessly. Amen.
>
> Trish Dukeman <[email protected]>
> Homosassa, Florida, USA
>
> TODAY'S CANADIAN BIBLE SOCIETY SCRIPTURE READING:
> Psalm 89:1-18 <bible.gospelcom.net/bible?Psalm+89:1-18>

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=====
--
Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:[email protected]
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