Unequally Yoked

An exerpt from Debi Pearl's book: Created to Be His Helpmeet, pg. 233.

My Friend, the Queen

When I was a young wife, my best friend had an unsaved husband. She always reminded me of a queen. She had a certain presence about her, in addition to her beauty, poise, and intelligence. She was a pastor's daughter, raised very religiously and with high standards. But when she was 17, she crossed paths with a young man of charm, the first guy to ever show interest in her. She "fell in love" at first sight, and they ran away and married. But, he had several bad habits which included use of tobacco in various forms, cursing, screaming at her when he was mad, and porn. By the time I met her, she had come to repentance and was trying to make a go of this unequal marriage. Through God's grace and growing fear of the Lord, she was able to live out the "love" chapter of 1 Corinthians 13.

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave rudely, seeks not her own, is not easily angered, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

When he was rude or insensitive, she did not get puffed up with righteous indignation. When he was mean and cussed at her, she was kind and suffered long. She bore with his sloppiness and believed he would bring home the paycheck instead of spending it on the way home. Most of the time, she was able to endure all things with cheer and thanksgiving.

(This woman is my hero.)

Her husband worked all night at a factory. All his fellow workers were drunks. One early morning near closing time, some of the men started complaining about their wives, telling each other how lazy, no account, dishonest, disloyal, cheap, fat, sorry, and ugly their wives were. My friend's husband, Jim, said nothing. Finally, one of the men asked Jim about his wife. It was the first time he had ever really thought about his wife in comparison to the other men's wives, and he was suddenly deeply thankful, "Oh, I am not going to tell you about my wife, because it would make you all mad." The men insisted, so he told them, "She's beautiful, with long, pretty blond hair.
She is always so sweet, and will do anything for me."