Stop the Presses!! Author Karen Ball has agreed to do an interview with me exclusively for Families.com. Come back tomorrow to see her answers to the questions I asked and to learn more about her.
In “The Breaking Point,” a Christian novel by Karen Ball, characters Gabe and Renee Roman are fighting to save their marriage, which is only ten years old. Although once madly in love, they are drifting farther and farther apart, sometimes hating each other, sometimes wishing that things could go back to how they were before. They’ve been to counseling, and think they’ve made some progress, but their old patterns keep reemerging and they can’t break the mold they’ve created.
Gabe grew up in a very abusive household, and his rage is the only thing that saved him. He vowed that he would be different from his father and would never strike a woman, but his rage comes out in other ways: yelling, criticizing, and verbally abusing Renee.
Renee grew up in a loving, caring home where her father was her hero. She always wanted to marry someone just like her father, someone who would love and protect her, treating her like a queen.
Despite the fact that both Gabe and Renee were Christians and believed that they should wait until they were married to be intimate, one night things went too far. They felt terrible about it and determined that it would never happen again, but it was too late – Renee got pregnant. They were married right away, planning to make the best of it, but as the pregnancy progressed, something went terribly wrong. The baby lost its blood supply and died, and the marriage died as well.
Now, years later, Gabe and Renee feel that there’s nothing left for them. Making one last effort, they take a trip up into the mountains, seeking to rekindle their love, but as they drive home, their truck goes over the side of a cliff and nearly kills both of them. Stranded out in the middle of nowhere, a blizzard blowing all around them, they have to make a choice: find a way to work together, or perish.
I found this book enlightening as it pointed out that we can’t expect someone else to make us happy. If we look to our spouse to be that bright light in our lives and to pull us out whenever we get down, we’ll be disappointed. They are only human and they are doing the best they can, just as we are. But when we pull our end of the load and work together, our relationship can be even sweeter than we had imagined.
I enjoyed this story quite a bit and recommend it, especially if you are struggling in your marriage. Karen Ball, the author, includes a note at the end explaining that the story came about because of difficulties in her own marriage and she wanted to share with others the things she learned. What a gift.
(This book was published by Multnomah in 2003.)
Related Blogs:
Marriage Tips: Assume Good Intentions
50% of Marriages Do Not End in Divorce