“You’ve got an anchor that’ll never leave, inside you,” she shared. “But your circumstances…I think people think ‘Oh, I should be OK. There should be no problems in my life.’ That’s not the truth.”
In fact, things got worse before they got better for the Robertsons. In his rage, Phil eventually ended up kicking Kay and the kids out when she became heavily involved in her church.
But then one day, his wife’s fervent prayers for his repentance paid off when Phil showed up teary-eyed in his gray truck at her work.
“I saw that old gray truck out there sitting in the parking lot,” said Kay. “And he had his head down on the steering wheel when I saw him. So I went out there. And when I opened the door, I looked at him. And he had tears. And he said, ‘Look.’ He said, ‘I want my family back, and I won’t drink anymore.’ And, you know, the part of me that saw the humbleness in him said, ‘Oh, yes, yes. That’s what I want.’ You know, that’s what I prayed for. We prayed every day for him.”
“But part of me inside said, ‘He can’t make it without God. I know that,'” said Kay. “So I told him – I said, ‘Phil, you’ve got to have help.’ And Phil said, ‘Uh, you’re talking about God.'”
In fact, she was.
And to this day, over four decades later, Phil claims that his decision to pursue God with all his heart is the best one he’s ever made.
“You can go from an evil person to a person who demonstrates love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control,” said Phil. “You’re like, how do you go from one group to the other? We tend to look at the word repent, repentance as a bad thing. I am thankful that God allowed us and gave us the ability to change our mind, to repent, and take a different course of action. It’s a wonderful thing that he allowed us to be able to stop and start over. You can be born again. And so the change that took place back there all those years ago – 43 years ago – the change that took place is literally stunning.”
“The most needed indispensable thing on planet earth right now is what Jesus said,” added Phil. “Look here’s the greatest commands that there are. There are no rules except love God and love your neighbor. Well, if we just – if we just did that – just think about what kind of society and world we would have.”
See more from Phil and Kay Robertson’s powerful testimony in their full interview with Focus on the Family.
