Bob & Charlyne's Blog - from the heart of a restored marriage

Thursday evening Lori called and asked us to check the email for a photo she had sent. Her family was making doughnuts in a new deep fryer and the kids wanted us to see them. In that photo the glaze could be seen glistening on the still-hot doughnuts. They looked so good.

Friday morning Charlyne discovered a plate of doughnuts on our kitchen counter. Lori had stopped by on the way to school to surprise us, and she did.

Early Friday morning, while reading overnight email, drinking coffee and eating a doughnut, the Lord reminded me how restored marriages are like doughnuts. Charlyne and I can write and speak all day about restored marriages, but to you that is like a our picture of a doughnut. Not until you have a restored marriage right under your roof will you be able to really appreciate the miracle you are standing with God and praying for today.

If you will continue to do your part and stand strong, we will continue to do our part and minister until you can proclaim from personal experience that "Prodigals DO come home."

Have you heard about the youngster who wanted a chimp for Christmas?  Year after year he begged and pleaded with his parents to get him a chimp.  Finally this Christmas they gave him the chimp that he had wanted so badly.  In less than a week, everything changed. He now wants to send his chimp back to where it came from.  What happened?  In all those years of pleading for a chimp, he never learned what it would be like to actually own a chimp. He never bothered learning what having a chimp would entail. He only thought about all the fun they would have together.  The excitement of getting a chimp quickly turned into work needed every day to maintain a healthy chimp.

Sad, but this is what happens to good standers time and again. God gives them the "chimp," or "Christ Has Ignited My Prodigal" they had long sought, as He sent one more prodigal toward their family.  Day after day we hear from good standers whose prodigal spouse is in the final approach toward home, and they are asking, "What do I do now?"  Like the kid with the chimp, the time to learn what to do next is before your prayer is answered.

I do not want this to become a commercial for material, so no resources will even be mentioned, but there are helps available.  The only way you will be successful in your restored marriage is to plan and prepare now, ahead of time, with God's help, not to
fail.

Even though your prodigal may be acting like quite a "monkey" right now, your "CHIMP" is on the way, so in 2010 let's get you seriously ready for marriage restoration.