Expert: Brian Thompson - 1/15/2007

Question
i am married to a man who suffers extreme mood swings, is verbally and physically abusive and has a family history of bipolar and schizophrenia. he blames me and our 5 children for his behaviour. telling us that he hates us and that we are all dead to him. he walked out on us 7 weeks ago telling us that we were killing him and we didnt appreciate him, he wants nothing more to do with us. we belong to an A O G church but he believes that the pastors there are all against him and are just on my side so he has left the church. he never wants to come back and has started a new single life, even plannning to buy a home.  the children and i are so hurt angry and bewildered. we are tired of trying to say and do the right things so he wont get angry, sick of walking on egg shells.would God want me to try and salvage this marriage, or should i just move on myself and hopefully meet a "normal" loving man.

Answer
I think the question of what God would want you to do can only be determined out of your own relationship with God. As you are attending an AoG church I expect you are Spirit Filled and therefore if you quieten yourself and submit yourself to God and wait on him you may come to understand what is his will in the matter. You should spend some time with your Pastors discussing possible courses of action. You should also consult Doctors so you know the course the condition might take. All these will provide you with focus for prayer.

If your husband is not a Christian, the Scripture allows the relationship to be broken, however, you have a duty of care which you took on as part of your marriage vows. Your husband is ill.. If the relationship is physically abusive you should avoid living together until he has his condition under control. He may benefit from theophostic ministry, but it is difficult to have him realise the problem is his. In any case his condition appearently needs professional diagnosis and he may benefit from discussing his views and from prayer ministry if he will submit