Grieving, Grieving … Gone!

(Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels)

It all started with a kiss.

When you first met him, life seemed perfect. You’d found someone to share everything with—to give all you had in complete trust and vulnerability, loving with a fullness you hadn’t even realized you were capable of giving, yet there it was. He was the one. 
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It started with a kiss.

“Judas came, one of the Twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs. And he came up to Jesus at once and said, ‘Hail, Master!’ and kissed him” (Matt 26:47,49).

Then, slowly and covertly, or in one shocking, terrifying burst, it began. His mask slipped. The hands that had once caressed and cherished you turned into a weapon. His lips, once a source of love, safety, and pleasure, became a piercing sword.

Being mistreated by the one person who vowed everlasting love, fidelity, devotion, and friendship is an excruciating betrayal. When you’ve trusted someone beyond all measure, with dreams for a future of mutual self-giving and authentic love, the dissolution of that dream creates a hard fall. It’s devastating to realize that the entire time you thought you were in a true relationship—a marriage of beautiful vulnerability and giving—your partner was merely pretending. He was in a relationship for himself, focusing on his own desires rather than on reciprocal needs, goals, and mutuality. He’d been physically present—painfully so at times—but emotionally, morally, and psychologically he’d never been the person he’d led you to believe he was.

​How can a person recover from such damage, shock, and blatant misuse of what should be a loving and trusting relationship? Once you come to the realization that yes, this is abuse and something has to change, how do you move forward?

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