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    Healing from Divorce: 28 Days of Prayer
    Healing from Divorce: 28 Days of Prayer
    Healing from Divorce: 28 Days of Prayer
    Ebook89 pages1 hour

    Healing from Divorce: 28 Days of Prayer

    By Mary Lou Redding

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    About this ebook

    The sixth book in the 28 Days of Prayer series, Healing from Divorce offers meditations that will lead you on a journey of healing. Whether you anticipate divorce, are in the midst of the process, or are living life after divorce, each meditation suggests a Bible reading and quotes a Bible verse. Each also includes a story, along with a question or exercise for reflection.

    Weekly Themes:

    • Broken Dreams, Broken Hearts (mourning the loss)
    • The Buck Starts Here (taking responsibility)
    • The Road to Freedom (forgiving self and others)
    • God's New Thing (looking into the future)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUpper Room Books
    Release dateFeb 1, 2014
    ISBN9780835813174
    Healing from Divorce: 28 Days of Prayer
    Author

    Mary Lou Redding

    Mary Lou Redding, now retired, served for many years as editorial director of *The Upper Room** daily devotional guide. A Florida native, she lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a BA in English Literature from Oral Roberts University and an MA in Rhetoric and Writing from the University of Tulsa. Redding is the author of *The Power of a Focused Heart** and *Where the World Meets to Pray** (a history of The Upper Room); she also compiled and edited *Prayers for Life's Ordinary and Extraordinary Moments.** Mary Lou is a member of Brentwood United Methodist Church.

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      Book preview

      Healing from Divorce - Mary Lou Redding

      INTRODUCTION

      The title of this book may seem to imply that persons can heal from divorce in only twenty-eight days of prayer. That is not true. Healing from the pain and loss of a failed marriage comes at a different pace for each person enduring the loss, and healing takes as long as it takes. Healing is a journey, and these meditations are meant to help with some of the journey. Divorce represents a great loss because it is the loss of a primary relationship. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, the needs for love and what he called belongingness—lasting emotional bonds with significant people—are basic human needs. Most of us cannot move beyond ourselves to care deeply and selflessly for others until these needs are met. When a marriage ends, the people divorcing lose a most significant relationship, and that presents a struggle if not a crisis.

      For believers, the reality that most Christians see divorce as a failure not only in their relationship with the spouse but also in their relationship with God compounds the pain of loss. Christ’s love for the church—perfect, unflagging, patient in spite of our unfaithfulness and sin—serves as the model for Christian marriage. For Christians, divorce loads spiritual issues on top of relational ones.

      I felt that my divorce marked me permanently as a failure. As a church professional, I thought my personal Christian witness was damaged beyond repair and that my career was probably over. And my heart was broken. I had loved my husband. We married with hope for our future together; divorce was never part of my dream for our life. Yet our toxic relationship damaged both of us. I poured so much energy into trying to save our marriage that I had nothing left to give to God or others. So when we decided to divorce, we were choosing life—though that’s probably not what it looked like from the outside. This does not mean that we took the easy way out. We took what was for us the only way out.

      I thought my contributions to the church ended when my marriage ended. But in the years since, my most frequent place of serving and belonging within the body of Christ has been with single adults. What I thought was my biggest failure has opened the door to a new way of looking at people and at Christ’s ministry of healing. Henri J. M. Nouwen wrote about wounded healers. I’ve come to see that there’s no other kind. We are all wounded, and we are all called to take part in what God is doing to bring healing to those around us. Divorce opened my eyes to understand God’s grace not as something we earn by being good but as healing love that comes to us precisely because of our brokenness and inability to be the persons God created us to be.

      These meditations do not offer answers. In fact, one of them urges those going through divorce to live the questions and even to love the questions as much as the answers. Each meditation suggests a Bible reading and quotes a Bible verse. Each one also includes a story, along with a question or exercise for reflection. I hope those who use these meditations will take time to read the suggested Bible passages. That’s the source of the deepest truth and the real power.

      The meditations are aimed primarily at individuals. I intend the reflection questions and exercises to help readers apply the daily content to their specific situation. We hope this book will be a resource for individuals going through divorce. Groups can use the content by reading aloud one of the suggested daily scripture passages, summarizing the accompanying meditation, allowing silence for reflection, and then inviting responses to the reflection exercise.

      You picked up this book for a reason. Maybe you’ve been through a divorce; maybe you’ve stood by people you love as they walked this difficult road. Maybe your compassionate heart urged you to read these meditations as preparation to help those in pain. Whatever your reasons, I pray that you will find God’s unfailing and abundant grace made specific and real for you personally as you read.

      MARY LOU REDDING

      Nashville, Tennessee

      Spring 2013

      How to Use This Book

      •Sit quietly for a minute or so before beginning each day’s reading to calm your spirit.

      •Read the suggested scripture passage slowly, noticing words or phrases that catch your attention. After you complete the reading, think about the passage and what in it spoke to you.

      •Read the Bible verse quoted above the day’s meditation. If it is a familiar verse, what new idea do you hear in it today? If it is a verse unfamiliar to you, consider what it says to you about God and God’s grace for your situation.

      •Read the day’s meditation. Consider how the writer’s words connect to you and your life (or not). What in the reading

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