Walt and Theresa Reaume Faith Story

From January 17, 2016 – Live by the Holy Spirit >>Link to video

We are Walt & Theresa Reaume.  We will celebrate 52 years of marriage in April.  While we were married in church in 1964, we were more devoted to our own comforts and ambitions rather than one another.  We were pretty selfish and self-serving and this attitude often put us at odds with each other.

On Valentine’s Day weekend in 1987, we were invited to attend a marriage retreat. We said to each other, “Do we need to go?” It was during that retreat that our eyes were opened and we realized how we had been growing apart, and our marriage was, indeed, in trouble. Later that year, in October, Walt first attended a spiritual retreat focusing on his relationship with Christ. When he came home, I knew there was a drastic change in him. When it came time for me to attend my retreat, I was reluctant to go.

Because I love Theresa, I said to her, If you value our marriage, “you will go.” Pretty strong words for me. At these retreats, we learned about Christ’s love for us exactly as we are – flawed people, in need of repentance, and forgiveness and beginning a new life with Jesus.

Up to that point, neither of us understood what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  We rededicated our lives to Christ and this was the beginning of a new life trusting Christ and wanting to live completely for Him. One of the first areas of change the Holy Spirit worked in our lives was giving us a desire to know God’s Word. We were convicted that in order to grow in our walk with Christ, we needed to develop the daily discipline of reading and studying His Word.

We quite often spend time in the morning over a cup of coffee or two discussing what we are learning. We can be studying the same lesson, yet have entirely different perspectives.

The Holy Spirit has guided us to understand that God intended for Christian marriage to reflect Christ’s love for His church. The references of Christ as the bridegroom and His Church as the bride helped us to see we are to live and love sacrificially in our marriage.

We have learned to be compassionate and forgiving toward each other. The Holy Spirit convicts us daily of our sin especially in our words to one another. When we are tired or discouraged, it is too easy to say unkind words. We are much quicker to recognize our sin, confess and ask for forgiveness.

We want our marriage to be an example to others coming behind us. We want others to see that marriage should be and can be filled with joy. We are seeing too many couples today breaking their covenant with one another. We would encourage couples to trust God, listen to the Holy Spirit, and know there is much blessing to come when you are obedient to God’s call in your marriage.

Probably the greatest work of the Holy Spirit in our marriage came during the darkest time of our lives together. The deep pain we experienced in the death of our youngest son at 26 years old caused us to become completely dependent on God and on one another.

We know that the experience of losing a child can quite often result in a split for a couple. For us, it was a time when we felt the presence of the Holy Spirit most profoundly. He drew us to God’s Word for comfort. He showed us how to comfort one another.  He sent friends to comfort us. All of these things showed us how much God loved us.

While we asked many questions of God concerning Bob’s death, we never doubted His love and mercy for us or for our son. We know now that we would have never survived this time in our life without the Spirit drawing us close to God and to one another. Over time – a long time – the Holy Spirit has taught us to be thankful in all things both big and small. We are ever grateful to our God for the love He has given us for one another.

As our growth in God has increased so has our love for one another. There is a passage in the book of Joel which  says: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.”  This passage can definitely apply to our marriage.

Before Christ, our relationship was dry and damaged. But God, (we love those two words, But God) has healed our relationship and blessed us abundantly for those lost years.