About Married A.F.

We shouldn’t still be married, shouldn’t possibly be alive, and definitely shouldn’t be sharing this story…

 

Life for us was so great through high school (starting dating in 1999) and the first year of college, but then we spiraled out of control spiritually, emotionally, and in our relationship. We both knew the love of God and got baptized together in 2003. Sadly the moment we couldn’t go home every Sunday in college for church, pulled us away from our relationship with God. The distance from our families and church quickly started to outwardly show. Our relationship together was full of lies, deceit, manipulation, and constantly hurting each other purposely.

Somehow in 2008, we got married. Everyone who knew us knew we would be divorced in a matter of months. Years went by with us still doing the same thing over and over to each other yet somehow managed to stay married. In 2011, we decided to have a baby. We had a horrible relationship, so why would we bring a child into our mess? We even at one point, told people don’t pray for us because praying to a God who doesn’t exist is a waste of their time. Let’s not forget we also told people not to "judge" us because we do not go to church and refuse to bring our children up in church. To us, church people were the worst.

​

Fast forward to the end of 2012 when Matthew’s aunt and uncle invite us to a new church they started attending. They explained to us the new church was like the church we went to when we got baptized (which we loved). We honestly thought, "Well that's just your opinion," but love them to death so we actually went to this church with them. The church was at our old high school so we wanted to really see if the school had changed since we graduated, not really interested in the church part. We get to the church and there are signs posted promising to get us out by a certain time, Monica, totally watched the clock to make sure too. She had every intention to say something to them if they were lying when they broke this promise. Not only did the church get us out by said time, we watched an episode of our favorite show "The Office"! We couldn’t believe it! We even went back the next Sunday too.

​

Here we are 10 years later (2022), Matthew is an Elder of Cultivate Church, Monica is part of the worship and prayer teams, and our son and daughter ask us if it’s Sunday yet because they love going to Cultivate so much. Thank you Jesus for changing our lives forever! When we live out loud, on purpose, and give everything to God, the amazing experiences we get to have here on Earth will NEVER compare to how awesome eternity will be for all of us!