Let me tell you a story about a girl named Courtney. Courtney fell in love with a boy at age 16. They dated for 4 years and he proposed. This was Courtney're first boyfriend and had prayed for years to find a godly man. When this boy showed up at church one day, she knew he'd be the one she would marry. It was a cold day in Novemer when they exchanged vows in front of their friends, family, and God. She saved her first kiss on their wedding day.
Two years goes by, with a lot of difficulties with her husband. He got her pregnant, and made her have an abortion. She cried and felt alone, feeling as if no one cared for her. He'd come home every night drunk, and sometimes beat her or yell at her. She had her friends and her family, crying out to God, because they knew this wasn't the man for her and as much as they tried telling Courtney, Courtney was in love.
Courtney questioned God, but chose to continue to praise Him, even though she didn't know what she was doing wrong. She had many friends rooting for her and loving on her, but couldn't tell anyone what was happening behind closed doors.
Until one day, she came home from work....and saw a note on the kitchen table and bags were packed. She looked at the bags, and looked up and saw her husband standing there, in shock. He was meaning to leave her and was hoping to be gone when she got home from work. She told him he's not going to take the cowardly way out and just leave, but that they were going to talk. After lots of tears and screaming, he took his bags and walked out...never to see her again. In the note, he told he loved her as a sister, and not as a husband should love a wife and that he felt forced to be married. At this point, they were together for 7 years.
They were divorced. And she met a man. This man swooned her and loved on her and said all the right things. Until he texted her one day and said, "btw, I'm married." Heartbroken, she ended things with him.
She felt alone. She went to her best friend who is basically like a sister and just cried out and said, "I feel unlovable." Her friend hugged her and held her and reminded her that life is hard, but God is stronger in the storms and told her that she'd be there through it all.
Months goes by and she finds healing in Christ. One day, she meets a man. After months and months and months of seeing this guy prove to her that he is a man of God, he proposed to her on Valentine's Day of 2016 at church, in front of her family and friends. He has shown her love unlike the other men in her life; he has challenged her; he has shown her what love is supposed to be like. He is pursuing a career as a worship leader as well as a writer and she is a worship leader as well.
She asked me to be her maid of honor. Tears of joy and my heart is bursting with excitement for her.
I was the friend that held her. She was my friend who has held me. We have grown up together and I am beyond happy for her. To see him serve God with his whole being, I am completely at peace that she is marrying him and I get to stand by her.
What satan did to her and the attacks he did against her, God redeemed every situation.
