I got married at a very young age. In the beginning, everything was wonderful. We were in the first stage of our marriage and things could not be better. 
But things turned sour when my husband started to drink. He was drinking before we got married, but promised me that he would stop when we got married. I believed him. His drinking gave rise to new bad habits. He would hang around with bad friends and would come home late. When I confronted him about his drinking, he became aggressive. He became physically abusive and I questioned our marriage. I remember asking myself: “What type of marriage have I got myself in to?” I was miserable. I used to go to work with bruised eyes and fresh, bloody scars on my body.
After every drunken episode he used to plead for my forgiveness and promise to stop drinking and hitting me. I believed him repeatedly. For a while, we would be happy again, talking, laughing and communicating. Just days later, he would be back with his friends and the cycle would start all over again.
My worst nightmare came true when my husband again beat me. I was pregnant with my first child. I tried to escape and jumped over the fence. I lost my baby. That was the worst point in my husband’s eight-year-long physical abuse.
I hated my husband, myself and even God. I told a friend who invited me to reach out to God: “God? He cannot help me! He’s been watching my husband beat me. Why would I ask for help from this God?”
But one day I decided to give God a chance. It was not easy. I was told to forgive my husband. That was the most difficult thing for me to do. In the face of my denial the pastor was adamant: If you don’t forgive your husband, you will never be able to let go and overcome this situation,” he said. I thought of all the beatings I received, my lost baby, the humiliation I faced and knew I would need a lot of strength to do it.
In the end, I did muster up enough courage and forgave my husband. I prayed to God to help me. Today I have a most loving husband and a wonderful father to our children. When asked what a real man is, my husband said: “A real man is the one who fears the Lord and loves and takes care of his wife and children. This to me is the definition of a real man”. Elizabeth