Someone need to hear this Be strong

Someone need to hear this. Be strong. On my wedding day in October, two hours after we said our vows, I went outside to find my husband for our first dance. In the church parking lot, under the orange leaves, his car was running. Through the window, I saw Marcus kissing my stepsister Ashley with his hand on her leg and her lipstick on his collar. I knocked on the glass in my white dress and they jumped apart. Marcus put his hands up and said, "No, no, no, wait a minute, Danielle. Just wait a minute." Ashley fixed her hair in the mirror and said, "Relax, it's not what you think." I ran back across the parking lot crying, but I had already signed the paper and I already had his name. Inside, the DJ called us for our first dance and Marcus walked in, took my hand, and smiled for the camera like nothing happened. And I danced with him because the whole church was watching. Ashley is my stepsister. Her mother, Carol, married my dad when I was twelve. Ashley got the compliments and I got the dishes. She's blonde, she's a size two, she posts every outfit, and she has never cooked a meal in her life. I cook, I clean, I sing in the choir, and I run the church kitchen on Wednesday nights. After the wedding, I moved into his house and I never said one word about the car. I kept thinking, "What will the people at church say?" But they already knew. At the fall festival, Sister Pam hugged me by the pumpkin pies and said, "You look beautiful, baby." Then I heard her behind the hayride telling Deborah, "No wonder he went to the sister. Look at her." Every Sunday they smiled in my face and every Monday they talked about me behind my back. At home, Marcus stopped calling me by my name. He came home and said, "Make me a plate." He threw his work shirts on the floor and said, "Wash these by hand. The machine ruins them." At night, he slept with his back to me and he hadn't touched me since the wedding. When I asked him about a baby, he said, "It's not the right time." At 2:00 in the morning, his phone lit up on the nightstand with "Lil Sis" and a little red heart. On Sunday, we had dinner at Carol's house and Ashley sat right across from my husband. All through dinner, he kept looking at her and nodding toward the hallway. Ashley stood up and said, "I'm going to the bathroom." A minute later, Marcus wiped his mouth and said, "Excuse me." I went to the kitchen to get more of my cornbread and when I passed the bathroom, I heard them kissing behind the door. That night at home, I said, "Marcus, I heard you in the bathroom. I can't do this anymore." He said, "You can't do what? Have you seen yourself?" He looked me up and down and said, "When you lose the weight and look like Ashley, maybe then you can save this marriage." In November, I signed the divorce papers. The house was his, the car was his, and I left with two suitcases. I moved into a studio above a laundromat with a mattress on the floor and a window that wouldn't close. I started buying wine in a box and every night I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and asked, "Who would ever want you?" I stopped going to church because I couldn't sit in that pew and hear them whisper. I didn't leave that apartment for a month. Then one rainy afternoon, somebody knocked on my door. It was Kiara, my best friend since second grade, with wet leaves on her boots and two cups of hot apple cider. Kiara moved to Germany eight years ago for a man she met online. She saw the wine on the counter and she didn't say one word about it. She sat down on my mattress and said, "Danielle, I heard." I said, "Then you know I'm the joke of the whole church." She said, "Do you know why I came home? He cheated on me in Germany with a woman from his office. I couldn't even read the signs there. I had no job, no money, and nobody to call at 3:00 in the morning." I asked her, "How did you get up?" She took out her phone and said, "Bible Chat. It's not a church and nobody in there whispers about you. Every morning it gave me a verse before I faced another day alone. At night when I wanted to drink, I opened the chat instead. I typed what I couldn't tell anybody and it prayed with me. It gave me the story of Ruth, a woman who lost her husband, left her country with nothing, and started over picking up leftover grain in a stranger's field. And God sent a Boaz, an honest man who stood up in front of the whole town and made her his wife. And I believed God wasn't done with me either." Kiara put Bible Chat on my phone and she poured my wine down the sink. That night I typed, "My husband cheated on me with my stepsister on our wedding day and my church laughs at me." And Bible Chat answered me with Psalm 34: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." In week one, I read the morning verse with my coffee instead of opening Ashley's page. In week two, I walked into a gym for the first time in my life and I stayed for twenty minutes. In week three, I applied for the kitchen manager job on Main Street, even though I thought I wasn't good enough. The morning of the interview, my lock screen said, "The spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline." And I got the job. In week four, Andre, who brought the produce to our kitchen every Friday, asked me to dinner. On our first date, he said, "I'll always tell you the truth and I'll never make you guess." A year later, on homecoming Sunday, I walked into my old church in a burgundy dress with Andre holding my arm. The whole church turned around and Sister Pam dropped her fan. Marcus and Ashley were sitting in the third row and Ashley came over with her jaw tight and said, "Wow, Danielle, you look good." I smiled and said, "Thank you, Ashley. I wish you and Marcus peace. I really do." At the dinner under the maple trees, Andre got down on one knee in front of everybody. He said, "Danielle, I'm not here to fix you. There was never anything wrong with you. Will you marry me?" I said, "Yes," and the whole church clapped, even Sister Pam. And Marcus and Ashley walked out to that same parking lot and they didn't say goodbye. Maybe someone you trusted chose somebody else and you smiled so nobody would see. Maybe the people at church smile in your face and talk about you behind your back. Maybe you're starting over with nothing and you don't know where to start. Bible Chat gives you a verse every morning, a chat in the middle of the night, a Bible story that sounds like yours, and God's word on your lock screen when you need it. Tap the button below, get started on the app, and start today's reading.