To a Spouse Considering Divorce

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied with him God does not hold you accountable for your husband’s sins but for the godliness of your response to those sins. Believe that the path of lost dreams in this life is the path of the greatest joy overall. Marriage was created by God as a picture of the covenant-keeping love of Christ and his church. It is good, and it is right to want things to change now. Oh, yes, we all do. We want things about our spouses and ourselves to change now. And I think that is why Peter wrote 1 Peter 3:1–7 for wives in particular, because these words are meant to help a woman know how to think about changing her husband, in this case, an unbelieving husband. She should pray earnestly for him and for the whole situation. That is why those verses are there. I would recommend that she pray over them long and hard. But don’t stake your greatest happiness on his change. If you do that, you will probably become demanding and nagging, and angry, all of which will be self-defeating. So, focus your main heart energies not on fixing his failures, but on deepening your own godly responses to those failures. That is what God expects from you. God does not hold you accountable for your husband’s sins. But he does hold you accountable for the godliness of your responses to those sins. There will be a thousand acts of grace that your husband will not reward, or perhaps not even notice. And you will feel so alone in your sorrow. But hold fast to this truth: God sees in secret. That is Matthew 6:3–4. God sees every tiny expression of your patience and mercy and respect. He sees them all and he writes them all. Your quiet sorrows are never wasted. You will be repaid on the last day and, perhaps, in this life more than you could ever imagine. When the decades have gone by, God might work a miracle in that man, and your life might end in a way that you never dreamed of. An emotional divorce indicates the emotional breakdown of a marriage, at least for one partner. However, if the legal separa