[bookworm]

What I appreciate about Billy Graham is his consistent emphasis on each person’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ and his consistent acknowledgment of his need as a sinner of redemption through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This personal relationship is most important to our daily walk through this life and from this all our other relationships are possible and are healthy.

After a brother from the Local Church and I had been married for 10 years and when I discovered an obvious infidelity that had occurred on my husband’s part, I went to an elder and his wife and asked for help. I was told I had to forgive him and “get him back in the meetings.” At that point evidently all that was important was the meeting life and it was felt that as long as a person was in the meetings the “life” there would take care of everything. Of course, meeting attendance would also bolster the Local Church movement.

During the 30+ years following that time I dutifully enabled my husband but this did him no good. He never was faithful to attend meetings and apparently was unable to be faithful to the Lord and, in turn, to me. In the four years since our divorce, I’ve come to understand that my ex-husband had an antisocial personality disorder that rendered him incapable of healthy relationships.

What is sad to me is that 40 years ago I did not seek help that would have shed light on the obvious fact that my then husband did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and, in turn, had no true relationship with me or our children. At this point he has no desire to change or to seek help. I have apologized to him for enabling him and we all continue to pray for him. Surely the Lord will one day heal and salvage him.