Abel & Mayra: A Marriage Tested Through Fire

Abel & Mayra share their testimony of how God took their marriage that was at the brink of divorce and brought them through to restoration through surrender and saying yes to Him in their relationship.

Thirteen years ago, my husband Abel and I began divorce proceedings, believing we had lost the fight for our marriage. Polar opposites of each other, I was raised in a broken and faithless household, while Abel was raised in a Christian environment. We were young when we wed, and each of us brought our own burdens, expectations, and pains, but soon, we stopped celebrating our differences, and they began to divide us.

We reached the point where we'd accepted defeat. I remember being in church next to our three children, and as I looked at them, I felt like the enemy was enjoying this — telling me that my children were all going to face the same path that I did growing up. God met us in the darkest moments, and we refused to accept defeat.

I knew that in order for us to make it, I would need to say yes to Jesus in my marriage. I stopped praying for God to change Abel and to validate my hurt, and instead prayed that He would change me. At the same time, Abel dove into the Word and relearned our call to pursue each other, to love as Christ loved the church. Together, we made our marriage our priority again. We began studying each other again, believing that we were made by God to complement each other and that our differences could be strengths. We dedicated ourselves to attending marriage seminars and conferences, reading marriage and parenting books, and doing all the things we used to do together long ago. Slowly but surely, our marriage shifted.

Soon, couples were visiting our home to get marriage counseling, and we established a Bible study for couples, sharing our testimony of reconciliation to help others restore their own marriages. We started GO Marriage for couples at Great Oaks Fellowship, building a community of couples that don't just want to strengthen their marriages but want to make sure God is the focus of it.

Marriage is a covenant established by God to glorify Him, a legacy that will be passed on to generations of children. Our marriage has seen the darkest of valleys, and God has graciously brought it to the mountaintop because we refused to accept defeat and rededicated our marriage to Him. God was able to restore and reconcile the former ashes of our marriage, and now, as we approach our 23rd anniversary, we are a living testimony that He can do it for others.