I am Tony and I've been married for about eleven years. My wife, Rose and I are very happy together and the good Lord has rewarded us with four children - first, a boy who is nine and three girls following. I'm a successful photographer and she is into cosmetics and make-overs. Generally speaking, we are very comfortable financially and are contented. Or, so I thought until yesterday.
Yesterday was a day we had both looked forward to with eagerness and high hopes. Marriage responsibilities coupled with demands of workplace had kept us both too busy for too long to have had time together alone that we savoured the mere possibility of the outing. Other things being equal, we were ready to leave home; laundry done, children in a neighbour's care and instructions adequately given at work for the day. What else? The cabbie had arrived five minutes earlier with engine steaming outside. The weather? Perfect. So we stepped out.
The plan was simple but highly promising. First, we'd move to the church for a two-hour marriage seminar, then from there to one of the most luxurious restaurants in town where we had booked lunch for two. Third, we'd then each grab a cone of pop-corn and move straight to the cinema wing for an early evening movie, estimating that on or before nine PM, we'd be home with the children.
We arrived church about five minutes before the official start-off time yet the hall was already more than half full. The main speaker for the day was well known and so most people wanted a seat near the front. Well, we made ourselves comfortable somewhere in the fifth row. Finally, the hall was full - the seats were all taken by gorgeously dressed couples, radiant and smiling faces greeting their neighbours on both sides of their seats in accordance with the M.C.'s jovial instruction. All was set except for a little sting of suspiscion I felt, more like jealousy when our neighbour to my left stretched his hand across me to my wife for a shake. He was all smiling knowingly and the fact that as a presumed total stranger he had called her by her first name struck me like a thunder bolt. After the whole episode I had stared askance at my wife but she had just dismissed it with raised shoulders and brows with palms open sideways. In all our discussions, both before and after our wedding, she had not mentioned anything about this fellow, at least not that I remembered. I must probe this further, I told myself as we sat back and got all ready for the main item.
After all the preambles, finally the preacher was introduced. At first, he came across as very simple and jovial but immediately became serious once he quoted his text from 1 Corinthians 6:16, which read as follows:
"What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh."
"I stand behind this pulpit today with an overwhelming sense of responsibility, knowing that the joy and togetherness of many families as it affects the future are at stake", the speaker started off saying. "I suppose most of you may have other things to do today aside this meeting so I will discipline myself to be as straight-to-the-point as possible", he quickly added as if to prepare his audience for what was coming. He was smooth, he was engaging and spell-binding. His thrust seemed to be about the far-reaching spiritual and emotional effects of sex with anyone other than one's present spouse. Then he landed with the need for counseling and deliberate "prayer-therapy", as he called it.
"Let me conclude with this", he was saying, "that if anything, and I mean anything, jumps inside of you any time you remember or meet your ex, you're a strong enough reason to worry about the future of your marriage. And if the recommendations I have put forward today are not followed seriously, I fear that your marriage may likely become a victim of secret affairs such as flirtatious phone calls, text messages, and the worst of them all - secret sexual relations. And some of you might already be guilty as we speak", the speaker added. The silence in the hall was deafening, not to mention the almost visible pumping of hearts. Everyone seemed to have been touched in a most sensitive area. It was all I could do to mask my own sins of "once-in-a-while" flirtatious calls and text messages with the last ex before I met my wife. Though I had never set out to flirt, I could not deny the fact that I enjoyed her company each time, even though it's mostly on phone and hardly in person. I was guilty. Period.
The meeting came to an end but the message never did for several hours. We were able to go through with our plan for the day but our lives would never remain the same again. On our way home, I hinted my wife that I was guilty of flirting with my ex and that I was willing go for counseling and prayers. Later that night shortly before midnight, my wife knelt before me to confess that something similar had been happening between her and the man who greeted her at the meeting. We held hands and wept and prayed together until we fell asleep. The healing had started and we would perfect it by going for the "prayer-therapy" the preacher talked about. Alleluia!
Source: aronialawari.com
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