Maui, Maui!

My parents have been married forty years so divorce is not something I had to experience as a child. I am thankful to God for that wonderful gift. My husband on the other hand, does bare the scars of a divorce-ridden home as a young boy. Many people, unfortunately, know what this is like. Even though divorce is ugly for everyone involved, I will share with you a story where God turned the ugliest divorce story into something beautiful for His glory.

Josh was just a young boy about 5 years old, so remembering his parents together is so distant it’s almost non-existent. The relationship was severed and the strings it left brought only hurt and pain. From a young child the scars began, abuse from a step-father, fighting, police, custody battles, random separations for prolonged periods of time, and constant moves which brought about instability.

His father was searching for answers and wanting this pain for his children had to end. He made a promise to God that he would always raise the children in church if God would only allow him to gain full custody. Not many daddies would take that much time off work, spend that much money and dedicate that much time to win their children. He was working overtime shifts at the fire department and struggling to stay above the water financially. After all, it is an uphill battle and back 30 years ago it was taboo to get full custody as a man. After several long, hard years and many long, ugly court hearings, the judge finally granted the children to live with their daddy. It was his dream come true.

The first test came when God brought an ice storm to his town. Many people did not drive to church that Sunday morning due to the slippery roads, but church was not canceled. His fathers house was walking distance to the church, so he had no excuse. Plus, I know this man has no problem driving on ice, he is a master! While sitting under the preaching of Dr. Tom Atwood, now in Heaven with Jesus, the Holy Spirit convicted him that he was not saved. He was saved by the Grace of God that cold Sunday morning and became a new creature.

He did raise them in church and worked hard at giving them a stable life.

Meanwhile, they loved their mother and prayed for her daily. It wasn’t until Josh was a teenager that he really was burdened about his mother. When we started dating he would often talk about his love for her and his desire to see her saved. I built a relationship with her throughout the six and a half years we dated and I also was burdened for her. Josh never got to enjoy a holiday, birthday, or even his own wedding with the peace of having both father and mother there. If they were both present, it was chaotic and uncomfortable to say the least.

After we were married for a year we moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Josh’s mother was sad to see us leave and Josh promised her we would visit soon. Just a couple months later we came home to visit and a pastor invited Josh to preach in a little country church she had been attending near her home. She too, had been searching for answers as she was raising a grandchild. It was there in that little country church that Josh preached, and she came down the aisle with tears flowing. She accepted Christ that night and she too became a new creature! I think Josh and I drove seven hours to Kentucky that night about 200lbs. lighter! We saw many changes in his mother. Things were very real in her life and we saw God do some great things.

Josh’s grandmother on his step mother’s side offered the whole family an all inclusive trip to Maui, Hawaii! We immediately accepted before she changed her mind! I was pregnant with our daughter and we were due to find out the gender of the baby just before leaving on the trip. Since we were flying out of Louisville airport we were meeting up with everyone else in Maui. We knew the baby was a girl and we planned on surprising everyone at the restaurant with the news! Little did we know that the whole family had a big surprise waiting on us. We got off the jet at the airport in Maui and I never will forget the smell of the fresh ocean air. We were about to experience the posh vacation we could never pay for on our own: luxury condo with chocolates and hundred dollar bills on our pillow for “extra” spending money, five star restaurants, candle light dinner for two at the Four Season’s, horse rides through the inactive volcanoes, whale watching on a private charter boat, and a day at the water park at the Grand Wailea! But what our eyes were about to see at that airport we were not prepared for. It was Josh’s mother! She had come along with the step-mother’s family and all her ex-husbands family on this vacation! This was the best gift for Josh! His parents had both been saved and were now reconciled to one another as friends. Josh was never able to experience mom and dad even in the same room, even child weekend exchanges at the gas station were everything but cordial, and now they could vacation together, in Maui!

The cost of Maui trip? Tens of thousands. The cost of one lobster tail at “Mama’s Fish House” in Maui? Sixty-nine dollars. The price of having mother and father reconciled to God and to one another as friends? Priceless!

“Thank you God for saving my soul and making me a new creature. Thank you for saving my husband and making him a new creature. Thank you for bringing us together in holy matrimony to unite our lives in you as one flesh. Thank you for giving me Christian in-laws that have become like parents to me. Thank you for blessing my children with godly grandparents that can help us raise them in your way. Thank you for taking the ugliness of divorce, and turning it into something beautiful today!” Amen.

Genesis 50:20 “But as for you, you meant evil against me; [but] God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as [it is] this day, to save many people alive.” NKJV