The first God-ordained nation was founded on a blended family. Jacob had two wives and two mistresses, to which 13 children were born. What can we learn from this? God knows how to do something great with brokenness! Jacob’s wives, mistresses, and children became a blessed nation! You should check out Genesis 29 and 30 for the full story; it may surprise you. I recently talked about the truth that there is redemption available to those who have been through a divorce, and today, I want to continue that conversation. I’ve had people in my counseling office (back when I did counseling, ha!) wondering if God could bless their blended families. They were afraid that because they had been through a divorce, they were living in sin and could not be forgiven. The truth is that God is a God of redemption! Remarried husbands and wives: It takes the power of God to take dysfunctional situations and make something beautiful with them. Remarriage is real-life beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3).
LIVING A BLESSED RE-MARRIED LIFE
If you get remarried, you don’t want to bring the shadow of your pain with you into the new marriage. But this is your fresh opportunity to come again to lay your life down, come with more wisdom, come to do it right this time, and come to be a blessing to the full extent. You’re wiser, you’re smarter, you’re better. Your marriage can and should be beautiful. Here are some words of wisdom for re-marriage that I’ve learned through my son Jason’s divorce:
1. Successful remarriage requires complete forgiveness from all parties, or bitterness will infect your next marriage. As Joyce Myers says, “Unforgiveness is like drinking deadly poison and thinking the other person is going to die!”
2. Learning to trust your new spouse is the key to the new relationship. Bonding is impossible without trust.
3. You can only love to the level you can be hurt. Vows like, “I will never let anyone hurt me like that again,” mean you’ve relegated (cursed) yourself to the ice castle! You have to be able to open your heart again. Don’t go into your next marriage with a prenup for your love.
4. The inability to take reasonability for your previous relationships will cause you to make the same mistakes over again. It’s not shameful to own your part, repent, and let God move in to speak His truth over those places of your heart so that you can heal and move forward.
5. Remarriage can be your best marriage because you have experience.
6. Superimposing your previous relationship over your remarriage is sure to cost you.
BLENDED FAMILIES ARE BLESSED FAMILIES
If you’re re-married and you’ve repented, you are to be blessed. Your home, your family, and your children are blessed because they’re a gift from God no matter how they got there. Here are some tips we’ve learned along the way as we’ve watched Jason and Lauren blend together:
1. Children must have permission from their biological parents to have a relationship with their new stepmother or stepfather.
2. Using your children to carry a negative message to your ex-spouse will destroy them.
3. Your children must have permission from you to love your ex- spouse no matter how much you despise them.
4. Second spouses need to understand the pressure parents feel to manage their biological children into another relationship with a new mom/dad.
5. Staying connected is the goal.
6. You must respect and not try to replace the relationships your stepchildren have with their biological parents.
7. You can’t navigate blended families with positional leadership. You must have permissional leadership and favor with each member.
8. Blending families is often blending two different cultures.
9. Often people marry the opposite of themselves so their personal strengths and weakness create a two very different cultures.
10. When someone is single with children for a long time, their children tend to play the role of the absent spouse. These children feel displaced from their role in a remarriage. Being sensitive to the children who are displaced is paramount in a transition.
WE DIDN’T KNOW REDEMPTION COULD LOOK LIKE THIS
About a year ago, Jason’s ex-wife, Heather (we only describe her as this in public so people know who we’re talking about, but to us, she is our daughter who we love), called me to tell me she was dating someone and she wanted us to meet him. Kathy and I had dinner with them several times and really liked him. About three months ago, they messaged me to say they were going to get married, and the Lord told me that I was going to marry them. I texted Bill and my team to ask if this was okay because this is not something that’s clear in the Bible. All of my good counsel said to do it if we were asked. A while later, Heather and Will asked us to dinner and again asked us to marry them. So, if you can believe it, a few months later, we married Heather and Will on our property. It was beautiful! What speaks even higher of God’s ability to heal and redeem is the fact that Jason spent the week before helping clear the property so that it would be beautiful for his (by the world’s standard) ex-wife, who had broken his heart years before and had a baby with another man.
How many of you know that this may not be the way it’s supposed to go, but God is ALWAYS redemptive!
I BLESS YOU BIG
If you’ve been through a divorce and have re-married, I bless you. I bless your family. I bless your kids. I pray that your children would be blessed and your stepchildren will be blessed! I encourage you to say out loud that you receive this for yourself and for your family today! If you’ve been through a divorce and are single, I want to tell you today that you will love again. You will heal, and you will love again! God’s redemption is bigger than anything in your past, and He can do miracles that we have never dreamed of before!
Like I’ve said before, I know this is often a tricky subject to talk about and I don’t pretend to address the whole situation in one (or two) blog posts, so I want to encourage you to check out the messages I preached on Bethel.TV regarding divorce. You can see them for free here and here with your Bethel.TV account. You can also check it out on my podcast.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Originally published on krisvallotton.com.
I was married for 22 years. My ex was very selfish, but I stayed with him to keep my family together and because I didn’t believe in divorce. I meant my vow. After several mistresses, my husband said he was leaving me and our children for his favorite mistress because she made more money than me, was sexier than me, and spoiled him. She does not have children and doted on only him. That was 3 years ago and I’m still not over it. I have always believed in God, but after this horrible pain I feel very alone and wonder if he really exists. I pray all the time, but have never felt an answer, response, or guidance.As time goes on, I feel less and less hopeful and not healed at all.
I would like to read more of what you have written about divorce.
Hey Cynthia,We’re so sorry to hear that your story has been painful and difficult. It’s not okay that these things happened to you, especially when you genuinely meant your vow. For really difficult circumstances like this, we usually recommend seeing a counselor whom you can process through all these deep feelings and concerns with, since we are actually not certified to counsel anyone. Know that even in the midst of feeling alone, God has never left your side. One of His promises is that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He loves you very much. Here are a few other blogs Kris has written and our Moral Rev team has written on divorce, as well as a blog on healing and restoration. Hope these bring you some of the healing and encouragement you’re searching for.
http://krisvallotton.com/marriage-series-life-divorce/
http://krisvallotton.com/god-really-thinks-divorce/
https://moralrevolution.com/sex-after-divorce/
https://moralrevolution.com/top-healing-restoration-faq/
Just want to say thank you and how grateful I am for all the years of wisdom and experience that you do freely pour out onto our lives, Kris and team. I have yet to be married, but reading up on this and so many things on moral revolution has spoken to my heart and changed me in many different ways! Just wanting to send encouragement your way. Thank you all so much!!
Hi- thank u so much for sharing all that. It is truly encouraging and beatiful. Your first point made me worry a bit. I’m going through a divorce right now and I have forgiven my soon to be ex-husband that he cheated on me. Iknow I played a part too that our marriage failed. He doesnt treat me very nicely since a few month and I’m not sure when or if this is gonna change. So if I were to remarry and I have forgiven him and haven’t got any bitterness towards him anymore ( by the grace if Jesus!)but he hasnt forgiven me etc; so does that then imply that bitterness will invade my new marriage and set it up for failure?? Hope you understand what I’m trying to say/ask…
Hi Daniela,It sounds like you have done everything in your control to do to forgive your ex-husband and remove any bitterness between you two. You can’t actually control how long it takes for him to forgive you. All you can do is continue to treat him with kindness and respect and pray for the Lord to work in his heart. Ask Him to show you anything you need to do to repair the relationship and ask Him to bless your new marriage, and He will. He loves you and His heart for you is full restoration, even if your ex-husband is not quite to the point you are yet.
Hi KrisThanks for this! So needed it right now. I’ve been separated 3 years /divorced 2 years and have had to go through the process of healing and when I thought I was healed my ex husband would open a wound and pour salt on it. So the Lord has had to do a deeper work which I’m so thankful for. The Holy Spirit has been my confidant and my councellor but my church family have been key in the whole process ..loved on me and my boys and been the spiritual father to them. There are two things you can do in a break up 1. Forgive or 2. Hold on to the hurt now forgiveness doesn’t mean they won’t hurt you but it’s how you deal with it that matters …our emotions are allowed it’s the manifestation of them that turns to sin if we allow. My ex husband is the only one that can steal my joy and bring me anxiety so the Holy Spirit has revealed this and I’m working on how not to allow this and how i react to him is my witness …still lots to work on and when it’s complete il be ready for the Godly man to enter my life and enhance my family BUT until then I shall deal with the damage before I jump into marriage ! Love this today thanks Kris because i needed the reminder that I will be loved correctly when the time comes and that its ok to want to remarry (eventually) until then the Lord is sufficient for my needs. Blessings Rachel
I have been dating quite a few men lately who have never been married, and have had kids as a result of short-term relationships (not dating past 6 months before the pregnancy started). The relationships with the mothers of the children did not last much longer after the births of the children. I cannot help but feel as if I am being short-changed in these relationships because the men have an emotional emptiness inside that they try to satiate through their kids. Do you have any articles about families that were never formed (no marriage yet children are present), and how to blend those?
I am grieving over this post. From my understanding, that topic is quite clear in the Bible! Read Mat 5,27-32; 19, 1-12, Mark 10, 1-12, Luke 16, 18, Rom. 7, 1-3, 1st Cor. 7, 10-16, 36, 39, Mal. 2, 13-16. What of these words from our Lord Jesus is "not quite clear "??? It’s "not clear" because we don’t want to listen and to obey Christ in everything he commands us to do, because we want to build a theology on our won wisdom and what we think makes sense. Don’t get me wrong. I am also grieving over this fact for my fellow brothers and sisters in such situations. I wish you wouldn’t have experienced a failed marriage. I wish you wouldn’t have to go through that time of longing for a new partner. I wish from the bottom of my heart a wonderful new marriage for you, but Jesus has something else, something even better for you in mind. Trust that "our father in heaven is going to give you the good things he intended for you if you ask him and not poison and snakes " (Mt. 5, 11). Staying unmarried may sound harsh, but trust Him! He knows what is best for you and in His wisdom he knows that the best option for you is not a second marriage. Statistics also show that a second marriage is proned to be divorced again even more than the first one. And what then? A third one? A fourth one? Until you’re "happy"? But if you call yourself a Christian you have Jesus will on first place, not your own. Because he knows what’s best for you! It comes down to do I j ust say and sing that Jesus is my Lord, or do I actually do it and obey his every command from the book of life? Keep hold it onto Jesus and never let go of him, keep your first love for him burning. Believing in Jesus is Not the same as making him Lord and Saviour over your whole life.