I had a conversation with Allison this morning that I cannot stop thinking about. As she was getting ready for school this morning she tells me that one of her friends in her class told her that her parents are getting divorced. As soon as I heard the word, I had all sorts of feelings come to the surface. My first feeling was sadness. I was sad that Allison, in 1st grade, knows what that word means.
She went on to explain to me that Carolyn's dad is still living in the house, but he is going to be moving out without any kids. She said that all the kids will be living with the mom. She said that Carolyn's mom and dad were fighting alot so they decided to break-up. As Allison told me the story I could tell she was wondering what that meant for her and her family. So, after Allison finished with the story, I told her I was sad for Carolyn that her mom and dad would not be together but that it would never happen to her. She asked me why and to keep it simple I told her that Jesus says that when you marry someone you stayed married for life and that her dad and I were going to obey Jesus, so because of this she never has to worry about her mom and dad not living together.
So there may be some of you out there who might say, "sure you say now that you will never get divorced, but you never know that the future holds". You are right I do not know what the future holds, but Daryl and I have decided in advance that divorce is never an option for us. Not only have we decided that divorce is not an option we have also decided that we will not live our lives hating each other or living separate lives even though we live in the same household. This was a conversation we had before we got married and it is something we have never wavered on. We both dealt with things growing up that we wanted to make sure that those things didn't define our future.
I am not naive, I know there will be things that will happen to us that will test us in this area, I know we will go through periods where things are not fun, but none of that matters. We have committed our lives to each other forever, not just because we stood in front of our family and friends and said so, but because we believe this is God's will for our lives. We also made this commitment for our kids. I know firsthand what divorce can do to children and I made a commitment to myself a long time ago that my children would never go through that, no matter what the cost.
