A mum left devastated after her husband had an affair has told how she forgave him - and now feels HAPPY he cheated.
Charity Craig, 45, and her husband, Matt, 40, split for eight months in July 2012 after she discovered text messages from another woman.
After a tense showdown, Matt left the family home to pursue a relationship with his mistress.
But after therapy, Charity and Matt decided to give their relationship another go and are now ''thriving''.
The couple first got together in their teens and married in their early twenties.
But by 2012, with four kids under the age of six, the pair were at rock bottom.
After discovering the affair, Charity went to a counsellor who helped her to see that their marital problems weren't solely caused by Matt's affair.
Charity now says that the affair was ''the best thing'' for them and has strengthened their relationship.
Charity, founder of a jewellery company, from Orlando, Florida, US, said: "This affair turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to our marriage.
"It definitely didn't feel like it at the time - I thought I knew my husband better than anyone else, but he'd been living a double life and I had no idea.
"My whole world was turned upside down and I didn't know how I'd ever recover.
"I started therapy, and I realised that I was no longer the woman he'd married, and he wasn't solely to blame for the breakdown of our relationship.
"I spent eight months working on myself - building up my self-confidence and learning how to deal with my problems in a healthy way.
"We stayed in contact for the sake of the kids, but the love we had for each other didn't just disappear.
"So we decided to fight for our family and work through our issues, and I'm so glad we did because now things are better than ever."
Charity grew suspicious of her husband's behaviour in July 2012, when he said he was staying at his job as a music pastor late into the evening.
After checking his phone, her suspicions were confirmed after she discovered damning text messages from another woman.
Charity Craig, 45, and her husband, Matt, 40, split for eight months in July 2012 after she discovered text messages from another woman.
After a tense showdown, Matt left the family home to pursue a relationship with his mistress.
But after therapy, Charity and Matt decided to give their relationship another go and are now ''thriving''.
The couple first got together in their teens and married in their early twenties.
But by 2012, with four kids under the age of six, the pair were at rock bottom.
After discovering the affair, Charity went to a counsellor who helped her to see that their marital problems weren't solely caused by Matt's affair.
Charity now says that the affair was ''the best thing'' for them and has strengthened their relationship.
Charity, founder of a jewellery company, from Orlando, Florida, US, said: "This affair turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to our marriage.
"It definitely didn't feel like it at the time - I thought I knew my husband better than anyone else, but he'd been living a double life and I had no idea.
"My whole world was turned upside down and I didn't know how I'd ever recover.
"I started therapy, and I realised that I was no longer the woman he'd married, and he wasn't solely to blame for the breakdown of our relationship.
"I spent eight months working on myself - building up my self-confidence and learning how to deal with my problems in a healthy way.
"We stayed in contact for the sake of the kids, but the love we had for each other didn't just disappear.
"So we decided to fight for our family and work through our issues, and I'm so glad we did because now things are better than ever."
Charity grew suspicious of her husband's behaviour in July 2012, when he said he was staying at his job as a music pastor late into the evening.
After checking his phone, her suspicions were confirmed after she discovered damning text messages from another woman.
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FunTranscript
00:00 Boundaries in your marriage are a natural outgrowth of a healthy self-esteem.
00:07 The more you understand who you are and what you deserve, the easier it will be to set boundaries.
00:15 So the more you work on healing your inner wounds, your childhood trauma and insecurities,
00:21 you will know exactly what you deserve and you will find the strength to establish the boundaries and reinforce them.
00:31 In modern America, the family has crumbled. The wounds run deep.
00:37 As half of the marriage is split, making children live the rest of their lives with divided hearts
00:44 and the pain that couples are attempting to escape through divorce only brings up a new set of wounds and frustrations that will last a lifetime.
00:55 You know, I have never been so compelled in my life to fight for anything like I'm rising up to fight for the family.
01:04 I've listened to too many shattered women who are desperate to save their family, but feel helpless as their marriage just crumbles in their hands.
01:14 But it doesn't have to be like that. There is another way.
01:18 I'm here to shine a light of hope into the darkness.
01:23 I'm here to help women heal their marriages, defend their family and lead with love.
01:31 If your husband has had an affair and you're making this really tough decision to stay and give your marriage a chance, then this is for you.
01:40 I'm actually recording right now a one hour free workshop to give tools that will really help you heal and move forward and work through forgiveness and trust.
01:52 But until then, until this is ready to go, I have created a support group for women who are feeling so alone and feeling like they might be making a mistake because our culture tells us we're making a mistake to stay when our husband has betrayed us.
02:08 So if you are someone that feels this way, but yet you are giving love a chance, you're giving forgiveness a chance.
02:15 If you are interested, you can send me a direct message and I will give you the link there.
02:21 Here are four signs that you have poor boundaries in your marriage.
02:25 One, you say yes when you want to say no.
02:28 You give more in the relationship and often feel unappreciated.
02:33 Three, you don't express anger just so you can keep the peace in the family.
02:38 And four, you often struggle with resentment and anger toward your spouse.