December 2018 STUDY ARTICLE :
Honor “What God Has Yoked Together”
17 Admittedly, there have been instances where an “unbelieving husband” seems to prove that he is not “agreeable to staying with her.” He might be extremely physically abusive, even to the point that she feels that her health or life is in danger. He might refuse to support her and the family or severely endanger her spirituality. In such cases, some Christians have personally decided that, despite what he might say, the mate is not “agreeable to staying” together and that a separation is necessary. But other Christians in comparably difficult situations have not; they have endured and tried to work at improving matters. Why?
18 In such a separation, the two are still marriage mates. If they lived apart, each one would face challenges, as mentioned earlier. The apostle Paul gave another reason for staying united. He wrote: “The unbelieving husband is sanctified in relation to his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in relation to the brother; otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.” (1 Cor. 7:14) Many loyal Christians have remained with an unbelieving mate under very trying circumstances. They can testify that doing so was worthwhile in a special sense when their mate became a true worshipper. —Read 1 Corinthians 7:16; 1 Pet. 3:1, 2.
Here is another troubling and despicable study article by the WTBTS.
I lived through this shameful article with my mom and dad. My mom, my two brothers, and I were baptized Jehovah's Witness in the late 1970's. My dad was a non-believer. He would always be verbally abusive towards our mom every time we attended meetings, field service, and assemblies. Sometimes he would lock us out of the house late at night just to get back at us.
Their marriage was miserable on both ends. Elders would be called to the home when the verbal fights would get out of control. The Elders advice to my mom would always be, '' Stay with your husband, he might ''one day be a Jehovah's Witness.''
The last few years ( my mom being sickly and not being able to walk) couldn't attend any more meetings. She would listen to the meetings over the phone.
My dad would be verbally and physically abusive( he slapped her and even made death threats). When my brothers and I found out about the abuse, we tried talking to her to live with one of us and leave our dad living on his own. She refused to move out because of fear and reading articles just like this one.
Many loyal Christians have remained with an unbelieving mate under very trying circumstances. They can testify that doing so was worthwhile in a special sense when their mate became a true worshipper. —Read 1 Corinthians 7:16; 1 Pet. 3:1, 2.
We had no choice but to call the police and have our dad ''mentally evaluated'' at a local hospital. After his mental evaluation, he was forced to move out of the family home and move in with a close family member. My youngest brother moved in to take care of my mom. A year later she passed away.
