I prayed for many years for my husband to know Jesus

I prayed for many years for my husband to know Jesus

Rubén and I married in 1994 in the Catholic Church. We did all the Catholic rituals we were expected to do, such as going to mass and praying to the saints, but we were not believers. Many years after we married I found my first love, Jesus! My husband didn’t join me in coming to faith. The years went by and our relationship grew difficult because we didn’t have the same values anymore. Rubén started having a lot health issues and life got very hard for us as a couple. My prayer was always that one day Rubén could love the Lord as much or more than I did, and that his health would be restored. But the more I tried to share, the more he rejected it all. My frustration and hurt got the best of me and I had a very raw conversation with God. I said I wouldn’t share about Jesus anymore with Rubén; after all Rubén was God’s son and if he wanted him, he had to be the one to deal with him. I removed myself from trying to convince my husband. (Now I’m sure God didn’t need my help; he already had his own plan).

I decided to keep loving Rubén, taking care of him and not worrying about how I felt about him not wanting to follow God. I decided to honour my husband by just being obedient. It was hard but God gave me his grace and love. Many times I found myself praying over Rubén’s meals, over his clean clothes that I had just washed and folded. I wanted to bless my husband.

One day Rubén started asking questions about why I love God so much. We had a good conversation, with him mainly listening to my explanation. Another day he came home from work and during our conversation Rubén mentioned that his work place had hired a few new employees. They happened to be Christians and he was working with them every day. He mentioned that they were nice and he was asking them questions about God. My heart started racing, as I knew my heavenly Father was doing something.

A few weeks went by and Rubén told me that his Christian colleagues suggested he read one of the gospels to learn more about Jesus, so he asked me if we could read the Bible together as a family with our daughters. 

I wanted to cry with happiness, but I acted like that was normal for us. Our daughters agreed to read the Bible every night. We started reading a chapter of Luke a day.

Not long after, in December 2021, Rubén came back from work and he pointed his finger at me, saying: “We need to talk.” I really thought he was mad about something that I had done or forgotten to do.

I didn’t want to start anything that could make him not want to read the Bible that evening, so I avoided the conversation. We read our Luke chapter and had a lovely conversation about it, and suddenly Rubén said to me: “Remember I told you I wanted to talk to you earlier?” I said “Yes.” I was so anxious, thinking: “Oh no he is going to tell me something not so nice in front of the girls.” Instead he said: “Today I gave my life to Jesus!” He went on to explain that during his lunch break a Christian colleague saw him in so much pain so offered to pray for him, then led him in a prayer to receive Jesus. 

Rubén struggled with fear and anxiety during the Covid pandemic, he has gluten sensitivity and has diverticulitis, but God has given him a new life, his health issues are under control and his quality of life has improved greatly. He wakes up at 4:00am every day to read his Bible and to pray before heading out to work. We have been able to go together to serve in missions in Mexico many times with our local church in California.

After 15 years of praying and trusting my husband would find Jesus, we have now found a new chapter in our marriage where we are following God together. Our marriage has a new purpose – to love God first! Don’t let time discourage you; keep praying for your loved ones, stay faithful to the one who is faithful and keep trusting God with all your heart as he still does miracles.

Edith

God told me what I needed to hear about our foster daughter

I am the mother of four children; two biological babies and two joined our family via fostering. Deana came to us when she was three months old as a foster child. It was always our hope that we would be able to adopt her, but soon realised the process would be a long one. 

Every two years we had an assessment of her situation. We were never really encouraged to adopt as it was often hoped that the foster child would be reunited with her biological family. It was quite apparent that this would not happen and we needed to allow the process to run its course. We did what we could and applied for a permanent foster order, which meant she would be with us until she was 18. When she was 11 we were given the go-ahead to start the adoption process. Two years went by with court appearances and three changes of social worker. All the while we patiently waited. 

In the third year of the adoption process, we were at my husband’s school reunion, where I met one of his classmates. He introduced himself and then proceeded to ask all sorts of questions about my children. I am always a bit vague about my two foster daughters, but this chap was very specific about wanting to know if they were adopted or fostered, which is unusual. When I said that they were fostered he told me that God had laid it on his heart to come and speak to me. He had been reticent as we didn’t know each other and he wasn’t sure why God had asked him to talk with me. His questions were him trying to find a common factor. He then told me that he had been fostered by a family for his childhood and understood that God wanted to tell me, from his own experience,  that nothing would take away the fact that my foster daughters would always view me as their mother and it didn’t matter if they were adopted or not. 

Something shifted within me that night and over the next few days I realised that fear had crept into my heart regarding being a legitimate mother to my two foster daughters. I hadn’t realised this until it was gone and I experienced peace and confidence, which brought a tremendous feeling of freedom. There were two lessons I learned through this experience. Firstly, the only certainty in life is that we are loved by God, and God is committed to our growth – even when we are unaware of it.  Secondly, this man’s words, spoken so confidently to me, brought life. Three months later we received a call from the child magistrate asking for us to go and sign the adoption papers for Deana. 

Louise