After facing what she called the “hardest battle of her life” to save her marriage, Lysa TerKeurst announced in June that she would be divorcing her husband of 25 years due to his repeated infidelity.
With Lysa presiding as president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and holding a prominent name in Christian circles, the news came as a shock to many of her loyal followers.
But as difficult as it was for her fans to process, her daughter, Ashley Hodges, took the tragic ending to her parent’s love story even harder. The 22-year-old beauty born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, opened up about the devastating effects her father’s actions had on her own marriage and personal life in a raw guest post for Sadie Robertson’s Live Original blog.
“Have you ever been in a position where your life is going great and then all the sudden it turns upside down, unexpectedly, without warning, and you find yourself asking the question, ‘How did this even happen?’ ‘Why is this happening to me?'” wrote Hodges of the experience.
Though she’d heard horror stories of these sorts of “bad things” happening to other people, she never thought the monster that was infidelity would invade her tight-knit Christian family.
But as we know, Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy—and if you name the name of Christ, you ARE a target for his schemes.
“I had just gotten married to the love of my life, David Hodges, and moved to Birmingham, Alabama,” shared Ashley, who had never moved before in her life. “So, it was already an adjustment and very hard for me to move away from my family because my family is everything to me. We are all truly best friends. Only 4 short months into marriage, I found out my dad was having an affair.”
Her initial reaction was one of pure flabbergast:
“WHAT?!…” I could have sworn I was dreaming. “There’s no way this is true.” “No, like you don’t understand… I know that’s not true… my dad would NEVER do that.”
Prior to this moment, her parents had always been her unwavering rock and her “safe place” when life’s difficulties came her way—but who was she to turn to NOW?
To make matters worse, as the daddy’s girl who people pegged the “girl version” of her father, her identity was rocked to the core.
“My dad was my hero, my spiritual leader (for 20 years until I got married), my best friend, my coach, my boss (I worked for him at his Chick-fil-A growing up), and the only man in my life that NEVER broke my trust growing up,” said Ashley. “As you can imagine, I was completely heart broken.”
She admits that her father’s breach of trust also took a toll on her own marriage:
“Imagine this – the father you trusted your life with for 20 years breaks your trust in the worst way possible. How the heck was I supposed to now trust David? A man I’ve only known for a little over a year.”
Thanks to wise counsel, David and Ashley were able to work through the insecurities brought on by her dad’s affair.
“I learned that he is not my dad and that David has never given me a reason not to trust him.”