As the president of Proverbs 31 Ministries, Lysa TerKeurst has made a name for herself as a role model for godly women and a champion for strong marriages. Thus, many of her loyal followers were startled at the divorce announcement she posted on her blog this Tuesday.
“I so wish we were sitting face-to-face so you could see my tears and hear the deep grief in my voice as I share this with you,” Lysa opened in the soul-baring entry titled “Rejection, Heartache, and a Faithful God.”
She cited her husband Art’s repeated infidelity and substance abuse for the demise of their nearly 25-year marriage:
“My husband, life partner and father of my children, Art TerKeurst, has been repeatedly unfaithful to me with a woman he met online, bringing an end to our marriage of almost 25 years. For the past couple of years, his life has sadly been defined by his affection for this other woman and substance abuse. I don’t share this to harm or embarrass him, but to help explain why I have decided to separate from him and pursue a divorce.”
After facing what she has called the “hardest battle of [her] life” to save her marriage over the last two years, Lysa shared that God has revealed she has done all she can and “must release him to the Savior.”
Though tempted to take the startling blow as personal failure, the prolific author and speaker has decided to put into practice what she preaches through surrender and trusting that God’s redemptive ways are higher.
As for her ministry, Lysa says she plans to continue in her calling of encouraging women into bold faith and deeper relationship with God. Nothing has stretched her limits and capacity quite like her current circumstance, but she aims to use this painful trial to shed light on what it truly means to be a Proverbs 31 woman.
“Many people think Proverbs 31 is a picture of a perfect woman; but the Proverbs 31 woman is, at her core, someone who seeks the Lord in everything she does and trusts Him wholeheartedly with her life,” she wrote. “Our mission is to meet women where they are in the real, hard places we all experience, and to intersect God’s Word right there. We are simply a group of women sold out to saying yes to God—and He truly does the rest.”
Lysa admittedly “pondered giving up,” but after much fasting, prayer and wise counsel, she has instead resolved “not to let darkness win here.”
After a season of rest and biblical counseling, she hopes to return to ministry stronger than ever, with an “even deeper belief in the goodness of our God and a greater empathy for the deep heartbreak that happens to us all in this broken world.”
Though “brokenhearted beyond what [she] can express,” Lysa truly believes she has the capacity to forgive Art and asks for our prayerful support as she journeys through this difficult time:
“I’d simply ask you to pray. Pray for my precious children and grandchildren. Pray for me. Pray for our team at Proverbs 31. And yes, please, please pray for Art.”
