Testimony III - The Road Back to God

My wife and I had our first date on July 28, 1988. There is a funny story here (which I will not do) except to say we knew of each other, had no desire to even meet, and were forced together by a snoopy friend who thought we were perfect for each other. Our friend's marriage was a horrendous train wreak - and we both thought her matchmaking advice highly suspect. She figured out a way to get us to her house for the same dinner; and I asked my wife to go out in order to get our friend off my back. My wife accepted for that same reason. I picked a really romantic movie - Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

My state prior to this date: I had become a near pathological liar while committing adultery on my first wife; I would have been an atheist if I cared enough; and my only reason for going out with women was to get laid - but I was looking for a permanent relationship. And I thought I was great. I had been philosophically and morally opposed to God for 16 years. I had some good points (and some threads holding me to God). I went to a revival meeting in Joplin sometime in my teens - and came forward at an alter call and accepted Christ as my Savior. My church left that seed to be choked by weeds - but the thread was there. All during my radical years, there was one song I loved (regardless of how agnostic or atheist I was) - I loved "Amazing Grace". Those were the two threads that I believed I hung by; and kept me from completing denying God for those 16 years.

During the movie (what can I say - my wife was good looking and I would sleep with anyone) I put my arm around her and then held her hand; and God took a hand in our life. My wife and I both experienced electricity when we held hands (notes compared two days later). I say we were welded together by God at that point. We were never apart after that.

We tried to have sex the next two or three days; but I couldn't. We had time to talk, and hug, and bond. I asked her to marry me within two days and she said yes. We set the date for a year later to make sure we were not crazy; but we could have gone to the courthouse then. My wife was a fallen away Catholic, still a believer but unchurched, with a permanent disability and an 8 year old daughter. She was so honest you could almost call it a fault.

I had confessed to her in those two days the reason for my first divorce - and told her things I had done that my first wife never knew about. Since the moment of our coming together, she has been the only women I have been sexually attracted to - and my lying was under control. Her permanent disability began to improve. I have considered it to be like neuroreceptor molecules - once plugged together an affect occurs.

God put my wife and I together; and we caught each other and lifted each other up. My wife was in the grips of a disability which my love helped break. My moral and ethical free fall ended in her loving arms. She was unchurched; grew up Catholic and didn't read the Bible; and had no christian friends and support - just her Lord. I was an enemy of God - with tiny threads holding me to Him still. Both my wife and I think this was God's work in our lives, but it would be 1995 before I accepted Christ as my savior.

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