A friend of mind told me this story. Seems her husband drank a lot and would often drive while under the influence. After years of taking it, she let fear get the best of her. She began to envision her life without him. What it would be like when they came to tell her, how his family would take it, and most of all, what her life would be like without him. Each time he came home drunk, a fight ensued. Tension mounted between them. She began to think she couldn’t take his drinking anymore.

Then they took a trip with one of his friends. She stayed at the hotel and they went on a ride. When they returned it was obvious they’d been drinking and she confronted him in front of his friend. It wasn’t pretty.

Later they went to wash clothes and he told her that if she didn’t stop nagging him about his drinking he would leave her, maybe not now but maybe in a year or five years. He wasn’t going to take her nagging him. She told him that she had always been a good wife to him (and he had been a good husband, other than the drinking). She told him that she had never confronted him about his drinking because she was afraid if she did, he would choose alcohol over her. She said she had dreams of him cheating on her and knew the other woman was alcohol. It was a calm fight, no screaming or yelling. When all was said, he went outside and she remained inside.

She sat there brokenhearted and prayed. Pride told her she was right. Her heart told her she was hurting. Pride told her not to back down. But God said something different. As she prayed, He showed her how she had given way to fear. She had given the enemy a foothold by first entertaining thoughts of her husband dying while driving drunk, and he then became entrenched in her marriage.

She had a choice: Continue on her present course or admit to her husband she was wrong. She knew what she had been doing was not God’s will because God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. So as she was taking the clothes out of the dryer, she looked at her husband with tears in her eyes and said, “I’m sorry, I was wrong.” She was wrong because she had let fear take control.

So they left to come home. And somewhere on the trip home, she saw the most beautiful rainbow. It stretched from one side of the highway to the other. And it extended to the ground on both sides. The rainbow remained in the sky before them for about an hour. She knew it was God’s promise to her that her marriage would not end, her husband would stop drinking, and he would be saved.

Three years later, their marriage is stronger than ever. He still drinks, but not as much. And she doesn’t nag him. She praises God because she knows it is only a matter of time. He will be saved, and he will stop drinking!