Dear Maxine,
Oh how your heart will be broken. Oh how you will feel betrayed. You feel lied to, cheated on, and forgotten about. But you are not alone. You are not. There will be days when you feel so alone it hurts, it literally will make your body and heart hurt in ways you didn’t know possible. But you are not alone. Not only do you have a loving Heavenly Father and brother Jesus Christ who are there for you, there are many other women who have walked very similar paths. Reach out to others. Reach out to other women in your life and reach out to God in prayer.
Advice to My Younger Self
The LDS Church has just released several letters from spouses and loved ones who are dealing with a loved one's addiction. Each participant wrote a letter to their younger self, then read their letter on video. You can find the letters and videos here:
http://addictionrecovery.lds.org/spouses-and-families/stories?at=ff&lang=eng&page-length=9&prefs=&start=1&tags=letters
http://addictionrecovery.lds.org/spouses-and-families/stories?at=ff&lang=eng&page-length=9&prefs=&start=1&tags=letters
WoPA Letter 26 - Sharing with the Women at Church
(Lesson given in Church meeting by one of the women in our Community)
Dear Sisters,
I want to start off by acknowledging some of the awkwardness in all this -- mainly mine!
I’m here speaking about pornography -- and about my own husband’s pornography addiction and recovery. With people that I run into at the grocery store. It’s pretty vulnerable.
So, why do I want to do this? Because I believe pornography is one of the plagues of the last day. I believe Satan has ingeniously counterfeited and mocked what is most sacred, and he’s using it to destroy families and souls. I cannot stay silent on something that is hurting so many of my brothers and sisters -- and is profoundly shaping the world my children are growing up in.
Addiction is fueled by two main things: Secrecy and shame. When we ignore this topic, when we only speak of it in hushed tones, when we tip toe around it, when we seem too disgusted by it to talk about it, when we ignore the elephant in the room . . . we are doing Satan’s job for him. We are fueling the secrecy and shame. We must bring this topic into the light -- Christ says, “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Dear Sisters,
I want to start off by acknowledging some of the awkwardness in all this -- mainly mine!
I’m here speaking about pornography -- and about my own husband’s pornography addiction and recovery. With people that I run into at the grocery store. It’s pretty vulnerable.
So, why do I want to do this? Because I believe pornography is one of the plagues of the last day. I believe Satan has ingeniously counterfeited and mocked what is most sacred, and he’s using it to destroy families and souls. I cannot stay silent on something that is hurting so many of my brothers and sisters -- and is profoundly shaping the world my children are growing up in.
Addiction is fueled by two main things: Secrecy and shame. When we ignore this topic, when we only speak of it in hushed tones, when we tip toe around it, when we seem too disgusted by it to talk about it, when we ignore the elephant in the room . . . we are doing Satan’s job for him. We are fueling the secrecy and shame. We must bring this topic into the light -- Christ says, “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
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