Being Brave in Marriage

What does being brave look like to you? This is what it looks like for "Gwen" a retreat participant I've had the honor to journey with .  This is her heart. 

"I spent a weekend with the women from my church talking about living a wholehearted life. The key points we stressed were, show up, be seen and be brave. During the weekend, some long held issues about my marriage surfaced. What did being brave look like in my marriage? Leaving? Staying? I spent the next month thinking about all that I learned and praying for an answer. I found mine. God showed my that being brave was making the decision to stay in my marriage. I realized I hadn’t shown up in a long time. I was always on the fence. Never in and never out.

I realized that my arena was my marriage. There weremany people in the cheap seats that didn’t have a clue what I was struggling with who told me to leave. The box seats were filled with society’s perceptions about an unhappy marriage. Leave…you don’t have to put up with that. I have a few dear friends who have earned the right to hear my story. They are in my seats of empathy and self compassion. They are present, they listen and they pray.

The decision wasn’t easy and it didn’t make things better instantly. But I am brave, I can show up and when I need to, I can be seen!"

By "Gwen" (shared with permission)