Writer Sarah H. Meredith, a divorce survivor, offers five helpful tips on encouraging women newly faced with divorce:
- Remember that very often these women are in the middle of a very long season of loneliness.
- Be careful not to judge. Divorce is a great personal disappointment to the woman.
- If these women must now parent alone, don’t plan activities that require them to jump through even one more childcare hoop. Provide baby-sitting with her approval.
- Friendship in this vulnerable time may be the only ministry that helps. Let the Spirit move, but don’t try to force Him.
- Don’t autopsy her marriage. The ‘death’ itself is painful enough. Treat it as a grief situation and offer compassion and support – not pity.
This is one of those topics that’s pretty tough in the church, particularly the Baptist church. We don’t always treat people going through this with grace (or mercy for that matter) and we seem to fear that divorce is catching. I thought Sarah’s tips were a good reminder of where we need to start in dealing with women going through divorce.