Gò0dNews for Couples
Going Through Trials Together
I
by Erin Clay
t was just a few minutes after midnight. My husband and
God cares about our marriage. It is during times of trials and
I had just rung in the New Year and were preparing for
tribulation in our lives that we choose to cling to our spouse
bed when we got the call that shook our whole world.
or pull away. So many times, when hard times come, the
One of our adult kids had gotten into trouble. Over the next few weeks, our emotions were raw and
devil uses the opportunity to destroy marriages. In Matthew 12:25, Jesus says, “Every kingdom divided against itself is
on edge. Our whole lives had been suddenly turned upside
headed for destruction, and no city or house divided against
down. It was a time when we had to be patient with each
itself will stand.”
other as well as the circumstance. It seemed that all of our
A long time ago, we decided that God would be the
time was consumed by our child and the hurricane created
center of our marriage. You have to actively guard your
by his choices. We spent a lot of time with each of the other
marriage and pray for each other. Tough times are not
kids, trying to answer their questions and keep our home a
pretty. There are tears shed and voices raised, but at the end
calm and safe place.
of the day, I have my husband and he has me. Marriage is
After weeks of our new normal, I had to go to a store
hard—very hard at times. Some days I know that I am not
in the neighboring town. It was going to take us an hour
lovable at all. I could not imagine going through the trials of
and a half, tops, and we were going to pick up something
life without my husband and without God’s guidance.
to eat while we were out. This had become our new normal.
My husband wrote an article in January’s GoodNews
While searching for grab-and-go restaurants, I found a new
about each day being a new day and starting from there
restaurant, and I insisted on going there. The new restaurant
to make each day count (not knowing when he wrote it in
was packed and the service was a little slow. While sitting
October that we would be putting it into practice as it was
there, the couple next to us started talking to us. We talked
published). We are actively building better tomorrows in
about our businesses, our town, and the restaurant. We
our daily lives. Some days are harder than others, but we
talked about a lot of things except for the hard time we were
are holding tightly to each other and our faith in God. We
going through.
will pass through this storm stronger because of how we
When we left the restaurant almost two hours later,
approach the trials we are facing today.
that couple, unknowingly, into our path to give us a muchneeded respite from our trials. It was also a reminder that
32 // April 2020
About The Author
my husband and I agreed that we needed that. God sent Erin Clay is from Rome, Georgia. She is a wife and mom and works with special needs adults. Together with her husband, she created the blog www.wheninromega.com.
