Testimony Tuesday: A Husband and Wife Testimony
Tuesday's testimonies are from current and former Pureheart counselees. Most of these men and women have broken free and now walk in consistent purity and/or healed marriages but some are still in process. These brothers and sisters, married and single, represent a wide spectrum of ages, races, nationalities, denominations, backgrounds, personalities, and levels of addiction and dysfunction but all of them have changed dramatically. If they can change, so can you! For obvious reasons, we have changed their names. Here are their stories (unedited)
Brother John Doe
Although I was a professing Christian, I began to develop a secret life in which I became captive to the thrill of lust and masturbation. I attempted to hide my secret life from God, my wife, from my friends.
I told myself that I just had a bad habit...besides everybody masturbates, right? But over the years my mind became plagued with lustful thoughts and masturbating. Masturbating became an addiction...a sedative that allowed me to temporarily escape stress and tension.
I was on a repeating cycle of good intention - failure - guilt. I tried to stop. I prayed that I'd stop. I prayed really, really hard to stop. I read Christian "how-to-stop" books. I prayed with a church Elder. I attended Promise Keepers. I attended a weekend Christian boot camp for "Wild at Heart" men. I joined a Bible study. All of these actions and events were terrific BUT ALL OF THEM WERE SHORT TERM ANSWERS... failure and guilt continued.
Through God's grace I found Pureheart ministries. I talk openly and honestly with Tim one-on-one every week. Tim has personally won the battle of Purity. He "gets me." Pureheart is working for me because Tim has helped me understand my "acting-out" cycle and taught me to beat self-sabotage through eliminating "triggers." Tim holds me accountable, not only on my sexual purity but he challenges me to grow daily in my walk with Christ and my wife.
This is what my life is like now: I am no longer hiding; there is no secrecy in my life, nothing hiding on my computer, and no secret life. There is nothing between my God and me, and nothing between my wife and me. I love living in transparency, living in the light. I no longer need to look over my shoulder, wondering who will find some trace of my sin; I'm no longer paranoid of getting caught. I'm in the light, and I love it! I am free indeed in Jesus Christ. My past is nailed to a tree and buried in a tomb!
Thank you Jesus! (and Pureheart Ministries!)
Sister Jane Doe
Thanks to Pureheart Ministries, my husband is a changed man. Because of the tools and counseling that he has been provided, he has a new identity in Christ and a revised perspective on his role in our marriage. The biggest benefit for me as his wife has been the restoration of trust in our relationship. Having complete trust in my husband is a newfound freedom for me. In the past, I always tried to tell my husband, “I love you. I just don’t like your choices.” I really thought that I loved my husband, but my love for him is so much greater now than before he engaged with Pureheart Ministries. I am now experiencing marriage on a level I didn’t know was possible. We have been married for over 28 years, but I feel like we are back to the honeymoon stage! Thanks Tim and Pureheart!!