Can God Redeem a Broken Marriage?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Sadie Robertson Huff recently spoke with her uncle and aunt, Allen and Lisa Robertson, about how they found “redemption after adultery” on the “WHOA That’s Good” podcast.
At the beginning of their relationship, Lisa and Allen’s marriage struggled due to issues in their past that they didn’t deal with.
“Satan knew just the trap to set, and he did,” Lisa said. “So, I had a 14-month affair, and…my intention was never to hurt Allen. I mean, I know that seems weird that you’re doing this against your husband, but he was the one person that I never wanted to hurt, and he was the one person that I hurt the worst.”
Although she knew what she was doing was wrong, Lisa was deceived into thinking she could keep it hidden.
“But see again, the evil one tells you things…he says, ‘Oh, nobody’s ever going to find out about it, so nobody’s going to get hurt,’ you know, and so the darkness just continued to grow and grow and grow,” she explained.
Then one night, 14 months into the affair, her husband knew something was off and confronted her. Eventually, she broke down and told him everything. He kicked her out, and she went outside and fell to her knees, begging God for help.
“‘If you are really out there, would you please come and rescue me,’” she recalled praying. “And it was the most surreal experience I ever had because I felt as though He was there with me, and He was picking me up, and He was holding me.”
“Lisa was just so broken. She didn’t know where else to go, and so she went to the one place where she felt like she finally needed to be honest,” Al said of his wife. “Later on I realized how strong my wife was because she could have just ran and not wanted to face that because, you know, you had to face everything.”
After the couple healed from their traumatic experience, they began counseling and helping other couples who have gone through the same thing. Some even confessed because of Al and Lisa’s story.
“As hard as it was to get through, we wouldn’t change anything because of who we are in Christ,” Al said. “And as much as we regret sinful behavior, I wouldn’t — if I could go back — I wouldn’t change anything because the last years of what we’ve been able to experience as a married couple and as a couple who have found bread like a beggar and offering it to somebody else, we wouldn’t change it.”
Unfortunately, adultery in the church isn’t unusual. World Metrics reported:
Approximately 20% of Christian men and 13% of Christian women admit to having had an extramarital affair, 55% of American Christian men and 44% of American Christian women have sought out pornography at least once a month… The divorce rate in Christian marriages is estimated to be around 41%.
Thankfully, there is hope and forgiveness in Christ.
Through honesty and repentance, God can restore and make all things new. Isaiah 61:3 says, “He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.”
Al and Lisa share “their story of ‘Infidelity, deceit, distrust, and shame’ in the hopes of helping others find forgiveness through Christ.”
“When God tells us to forgive, He doesn’t tell us to forgive for the other person. He tells us to forgive for ourselves because it releases within us the victim mentality and the hurt,” Lisa said.
What once was ashes can be restored to beauty when you give it to God.
Movieguide® previously reported on Al and Lisa’s story:
Before coming to Christ, Lisa Robertson lived a life full of sin, and one of the things she regrets the most is her decision to get an abortion. But she is honest about the story now to help bring life into other people.
“Whenever I found out I was pregnant, I was 16 years old, and I really didn’t go to church except for, you know, like, Easter, Christmas, you know, all of those celebratory times. I had nothing. And so I really didn’t feel like I should go to somebody at church and talk to them about my issue,” Lisa told her niece, Sadie Robertson Huff…
“I went to the clinic and had that done, and it was a terrible time. I mean, the day that I went, it was the coldest, darkest, loneliest place that somebody could ever go, like when you walk in you feel death, you know,” Lisa explained. “So there’s three things that they told me that day. One was that it was a glob of tissue, which we know they knew — they’re medical professionals — they knew that was a lie…”
While many people would try to block this memory and keep it hidden, especially if they became a public, Christian figure, Lisa instead leans into the pain to help people going through similar situations. Lisa and her husband Al are both forthcoming about their sinful pasts before they knew Jesus to bring light to those who feel they have no hope.
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