Testimony of Healing October 31, 1994 Issue

My husband sang in an Episcopal church choir as a young...

Margaret Shays

My husband sang in an Episcopal church choir as a young boy; I had never been in a church until I was sixteen and had gone to a boarding school where we were required to attend services monthly. I hated this—to me churches were dark and clammy, the sermons long and boring, and the organ music frightening, reminding me of a scary Lon Chaney movie I had seen.

When our boys were young, we felt they should have some religious training. We knew it would mean more to them if we also attended church, although we didn't want them to be taught something we could not believe ourselves. My husband, being a very thorough person, started looking into different Christian denominations. He found some good in all of them, of course, but still not the truth for which he was searching. In the meantime we started holding family meetings on Saturday mornings.

After almost a year of studying and searching, my husband was reading something I felt was most depressing, which I knew I could never accept. Religion was something that was supposed to bring a family closer together, but the ideas he was then considering would tear us apart. I felt miserable and frightened, so I started to pray (even though I didn't realize that was what I was doing). I reasoned that my husband's motives were pure and selfless; he was searching for the best for his family, and he would find it.

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