Easy way out

from Flying Free

The erroneous idea that "divorce is the easy way out"...

Here is the thing...when a woman, who has shown signs of following the Lord...who has tried and tried and tried...finally leaves an abusive marriage...most likely...it is not the easy way out. Good heavens! Do you know what she is facing? She faces divorce, court hearings, terrifying child custody issues and scares, loss of income, possibly having to go back to work for the first time in years or decades, the possible loss of support from her own family (depending on whether or not they were raised to believe that "divorce is not an option")...she probably loses his family, she may lose support from her local church, she faces single-motherhood, she wonders if she will ever find love again. She wonders if her self-esteem and/or self image will ever grow from the minuscule dot it has become. She wonders if she will be rejected from church. She is looking at a failed marriage. And those around her are watching the marriage fail. She does not know if she will receive child support or alimony. Listen...whatever small amount of security she may have had in her marriage will now be gone.

Whoever says that leaving a marriage is the "easy way out"...has never walked in her shoes; has never lived in her home; has never EVER had to face the gut-wrenching decisions she has had to face for herself and her children.

Let's not judge; let's stop saying things like "don't leave and take the easy way out." Let's have some compassion.