Recovering From Divorce – Part 2

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten — the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm — my great army that I sent among you. Joel 2:25

Recovering from divorce and learning to live again takes time, so please be patient with yourself. Chances are you’ll go through the recognized stages of grief: 1) Denial. You try to ignore or minimize what has happened in hopes it’ll go away. You fear confrontation and refuse to face it. You won’t go for professional help because you think ‘it’ll all work out in the end’. 2) Anger. When someone rejects you it affects your self-worth and you react the wrong way. You make wild, unchecked statements born out of emotional chaos – sweeping statements like, ‘Good! I’m glad it’s over! Just you wait! I’ll find someone who really loves and appreciates me!’ 3) Bargaining. Once you realize anger just robs you of joy and drives the wedge deeper, you resort to looking for a solution or a compromise. And when that doesn’t work you progress to the next stage. 4) Depression. It hits you at the most inopportune times like birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. Re-runs of ‘our favorite movie’ on television, or restaurants where you made memories together depress you. At two o’clock in the morning you’re wide awake and can’t sleep. This depression is often the result of introspection, because you can’t think wrong and feel right at the same time. So what can you do? Learn to discipline your thoughts. Set new goals for your life. Focus on helping someone else. When Job prayed for his friends, God healed him and restored his fortunes (see Job 42:10). And He will restore yours too, so keep trusting Him and don’t lose heart.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, as in many things in life, give me patience and enable me to help those who struggle. In Jesus’ Name, Amen