Perfection. Recognition. Accolades. Liz Roberts found out they can take the place of the important things in life.Liz and her college sweetheart, Brian, graduated and moved to Wichita where she began teaching high school and found her passion, her calling. Recognition and accolades for her teaching led to opportunities for training and developing staff, traveling all over the U.S. “I recognize now that recognition and affirmation were quickly replacing humility and integrity, and the enemy used that,” shares Liz.
The Roberts eventually had their first child, and when he was nine months old their lives turned upside down when Liz, 22 weeks pregnant with their second child, went into early labor. Despite the best efforts of her medical team, their son, Cody, was delivered and they had only a few moments before he was gone.
Liz was mad and angry at God, and at everyone. The silence in her marriage grew; holding in the hurt, and loss. Another child was born into their family, and Liz went back to her travel schedule along with her full-time teaching job. More accolades, more recognition in her job, but not from her role as a wife and a mom. “It all eventually led to self-medicating with anti-depressants and alcohol, looking to fill a hurt and deprived soul,” says Liz. “I’d hide it so I could still be everything to everybody, except to those who mattered most…God, my husband, and my kiddos.”
In the midst of this, in 2013, God opened new doors for Liz as she entered new mentoring relationships with women at Pathway. She shared her struggles and her shame, and received affirming words that God forgives and restores; that healing starts with reaching out and accepting God’s grace. Bible studies, the writings of Christian authors, professional help, a Home Team–they all came together to begin writing a new chapter for Liz and her family. She re-evaluated her career, left full-time teaching behind, and moved into a part-time position that “helped me focus on my faith, my husband, and my children in a God-honoring way.” In 2014, Liz and Brian were baptized. “What an amazing testament to our awesome heavenly Father! Our two boys were able to see their parents commit publicly to our friends, our family and to them, that we were going to try our best to live the way He wants us to,” says Liz. Not long after, their love baby, Emmett, was born.’
“It was a wake-up call. My attitude toward alcohol and self-medication has changed. They no longer control my life.” A serving trip to Haiti last month was life-changing for Liz. It reaffirmed that her calling and spiritual gift is teaching, and she’s committed to do it to glorify God. “I’m unfinished,” says Liz, “and working toward being the woman, the wife, and the mom that God wants me to be. There are, and will always be, real struggles, real temptations, but I have the weapons to keep me strong and more focused than before.”
By Lori Devaney | Photo by Serena Shurtz