One of my struggles during our separation were the well meaning people around me who were trying to convince me that “Sharon’s done” or “It’s over” and encouraging me in subtle ways to quietly accept that, give her a dissolution, quit being so depressed, and to move on with my life. My best guess is that they realized I was extremely depressed and distraught, they were concerned for me, and they had seen enough separations to know that most of the time they end in divorce and they didn’t want  me to have false hopes.

I basically just got to a place in my mind and my heart that I decided that this was my life and I had to live with the consequences, and I was going to trust God in spite of the negative signs. I would strive to live one day at a time and I was not giving up. Being stubborn at times in your life can be a negative if you get stubborn over something non-essential, but then other times when something significant is at stake, like your marriage, it is time to just be single-minded or basically, stubborn. I am thankful that with Jesus’ help I hung in there. I was often reminded of the scripture where it says that He set his face to Jerusalem like flint (paraphrased). He knew what His mission was and no one, not even his friends, was going to stop Him.