29 1/2 Years of Marriage

Surviving the Unimaginable
By Ruth Janie Webb

He beat me with a hammer.
He beat me with a bat.
He strangled me until all of my breath had gone and I was left for dead.
He shoved the barrel of a 22 riffle in my mouth and told me hed blow my brains out and kill the children too.
So when he spit on me, bit me, slapped me or kicked me, it didnt seem so bad.
Self-esteem? What self-esteem! As bad as the physical abuse was, the mental abuse seemed almost worse. My husband would brag tome that he had other women that were prettier, smarter and more desirable.
I was left alone with the children for days at a time. He would leave because the house was too noisy. Hed leave when the bills were due. Hed leave to visit those other women. If I dared ask where hed been, hed beat me yet again.
Women who stay in abusive relationships are afraid. Only God can deliver. It takes God to give a woman the strength and ability she needs to step away from this type of demonic, controlling relationship.
I know the excuses. I used them myself.
I dont have any where to go. There is always somewhere to go.
I dont want to leave my stuff. Baby, when youre really ready and you have had enough, you will leave everything. When I left my first husband, I left everything in that house. I went to work and never returned. I only had the clothes on my back.
My babies need their daddy. If you dont seek help and leave that abusive relationship, you and your babies will end up dead.
He will kill me if I leave. He will kill you if you stay.
He will change. No, he wont! Not without Gods help. He has to want Gods help for himself, not because you want him to want God.
He said he was sorry. He is sorry if he put his hands on you. He is a coward living in the shell of a man.
He loves me. Love is not abusive.
He only does it when hes drunk. Then he needs to stop drinking.