At some point, many musician couples go through a season of attending two different churches. The circumstances surrounding it is usually because the husband is a full-time musician on staff at one church, while the wife and kids are a member at another. But where does that leave the family? In a precarious position, I might say.
We went through that season. For over a year and a half Marvin played at one church and the girls and I remained at the church where we had been members for many years. In my eyes, Marvin left for a drum job. I didn't think I had to uproot my girls for something I deemed as temporary. I wasn't interested in anything associated with where he was being paid to play. I was happy where I was. We both grew up there, and I wasn't in the market for any thing else.
During that time, I'd make periodic visits to the church where Marvin was on staff. Because he travelled quite a bit, he wasn't there every week. After a while, he kindly asked if I would come to church with him when he was in town. I agreed but it was very hard. However, deep down inside I knew my family needed to worship together.
So what's a girl supposed to do? I went on a 21 day fast. I asked God to give me direction concerning our situation. On the second day of the fast, I received a phone call from a lady at the church where I was a member. She said the Lord laid some things on her heart that she wanted to share with me.
During our conversation over lunch, she mentioned that she'd see Marvin on television playing drums for this other church. Her words to me where, "you need to be with your husband. You have a very good looking man and they need to know he has a wife. You really need to be with him. If you don't, be careful because somebody can take him from you." Note: Whenever someone gives you a word for the Lord, it should be confirmation, not new information and confirmation it was. I knew we needed to be together. Our marriage was already on life support and making the conscience decision to not be with him would prove deadly.
I spoke to my pastor at the time and told him that I was leaving. I assured him it had nothing to do with his pastorate, I just needed to be with my husband. I also left the bridge at my old church in tack in case we needed to cross back over. After I made the decision to leave my friends and family, the emotional tearing was something I cannot explain. Very painful to say the least, but I knew it was what I needed to do to keep my family together.
It took me about six months to even get with the services at the new church. My body was there, but my heart was across town. I really needed God to do open heart surgery on me if this was going to be my new church home, and He did. All of a sudden, my heart turned and I actually began to enjoy learning new methods about God that I hadn't quite heard before. Before long, it went from being "his church" to "our church."
That was over 10 years ago. As I look back now, I know it was a divine move of God in many aspects. I'm glad I aligned my will to the will of the Father. He has my best interest at heart at all times, as He has yours.
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