children. From the outside, Melanie and Larry’s marriage looked
great. They attended a strong evangelical church in a major city
and regularly “tuned up” their relationship at marriage confer-
ences. They sought to have a positive influence on other couples
and were often described in their circles as the “perfect little fam-
ily” having the “perfect marriage.” But life was not as perfect as it
appeared.
Melanie had suspicions about Larry’s faithfulness and hired a
private detective. To her horror she found out that her husband in
fact was having an affair with a woman he had met through his
business.
Melanie was crushed, but providentially three days before
receiving the sad news, she found a note on her car that read:
Dear Sister in Christ, Jesus loves you. Praise God for all things,
Jeremiah 29:11—“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the
Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray
to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when
you seek me with all you heart.”
Melanie clung to that promise from God through her pain and
suffering in the following days—during and after her initial con-
frontation with Larry.
As the weeks passed Melanie’s anger turned to sadness as in
reality she mourned the loss of someone she loved. But the anger
returned abruptly one night when a discussion with Larry turned
into an argument. The two were exchanging verbal blows in their
family room where on the wall, surrounded by family photos,
hung their nicely-framed marriage covenant. In a special cere-
mony Melanie and Larry had signed the covenant with their three
children as witnesses. The kids fully understood what the words
of the covenant meant, because their parents had reassured them
frequently that “Mommy and Daddy loved each other and would
never ever get divorced.”
During their argument Melanie kept glancing at the marriage
covenant. Understandably, the sight of it made her angry. She
thought, He lied to me... he promised me that he would always love
me.... he promised he would be faithful.Finally reaching her boiling
point, Melanie jumped up, yanked the covenant off the wall,26 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES