Andrea Stunz could probably teach a masterclass on hope. A year ago she found out about her husband’s infidelity. And while they didn’t immediately divorce, she’d be lying if she said she didn’t think it was heading that way. But she held out hope, and then something happened this spring that changed everything.
Andrea detailed her story on The Campfire podcast recently. (You can listen to the entire thing for FREE here.) During the interview, she talked about why she always believes there’s hope for a marriage to be saved. In fact, she thinks if you are a believer in Christ and don’t have hope, then there’s something wrong.
“I would venture to say, and I’m not a theologian, but if you call yourself a believer that hope is like your oxygen,” she explained.
That said, she drew a very important distinction between hope and expectations. According to her, anyone who finds themselves in a difficult marriage situation needs to realize that holding out hope and creating expectations for how things should turn out are two very different things. And that distinction could change your outlook and the outcome.
“Expectations are always going to disappoint us,” she said. “But hope is never going to disappoint us. Expecting God to fix my marriage feels and looks very different than hoping He will do what’s best for what fits into my chapter of the gospel story.”
She continued: “Expectations to me are wanting God to do something that I want to happen, and I’ve been there and I’ve done that, but hope to me is having faith in what God can do and trusting that His ways are going to be better than mine.”
Listen to the clip below:
