James and Sarah were high school sweethearts. James had grown up a Baptist, and Sarah a Catholic, but neither one had a strong relationship with God. The first twenty-one years of their marriage had little to do with God being the center of their relationship, and they soon grew apart. They had allowed activities and relationships with other people, including their children to become more important than their relationship with each other.
While Sarah looked to her children and friends for fulfilling relationships, James turned to pornography. Even though James knew that it was not right, he began to believe the lies of the world concerning the normalcy of pornography. Eventually his use of it lead to inappropriate online interactions with real people. Even though James had never been physically unfaithful to Sarah, she was devastated when she discovered these interactions on James’ computer. To her this was the final straw for their marriage, and she filed for divorce in April 2009.
God, however, was not finished with their marriage. God was already putting people in James and Sarah’s lives that would bring them to Him.
Two months before the divorce papers were filed, James began meeting with Mike, from work, for lunch. Mike was also a minister in a church, and began to invest his life in James. Mike and James prayed every night for a God centered marriage for James and Sarah, and that James would be moved from second shift to first shift for work.
James began to realize how important a true relationship with God really was, and that God wanted to replace the pornography in his life with a genuine love for Sarah. On the council of godly friends James did not move out, and Sarah began to see the changes that were happening in James’ life. At first she was angry at the possible manipulation, but God answered James and Mike’s prayer to “touch Sarah’s heart” when the very next day Sarah told her counselor that God had “touched her heart.”
James and Sarah have been married now for twenty-seven years, and have a 21 year-old daughter, Sydney, and a 19 year-old son, Brandon. God is now the center of their marriage, and through Him, James and Sarah serve faithfully at Pathway, and in their Home Team. They give all the glory to God for touching both their hearts and teaching them to stand together.
By Rob Dakin | Photo by Hannah Trussell