I am new here but already I feel that there are not enough encouraging words being shared. We are all struggling one way or another. No marriage can be brought back together without a positive outlook. For me, my renewed faith in God continues to provide me hope for my shattered relationship. Let's encourage each other, too, okay?

So...

If you have any quotations, stories, songs, poems, etc., that can provide ENCOURAGEMENT for the hurting hearts, please post those here.

Not to discount your thoughts but I think if you take a few days and read many of the stories you will see nothing but loving, heroic, gang-like support for those of us really trying to overcome hard situations. This is the most encouraging place I have ever been and if not for these forums and the knowledge and encouragement they gave me I don't know if I could have survived this.

Sorry, like I said, I'm new here. I've just spent the past hour reading some unfortunately discouraging posts.

Anyway, I am at the point in this journey that I need to feel there is hope. I know I'm not the only one.

There is always hope as long as both of you want to make it work.

I was not trying to be offensive. Yes it is discouraging sometimes but after you have been here a while you will see the wisdom of the posts that seem so discouraging. Really. Welcome to MB. Not the best place in the world to be but it is the best place in the world to be. Figure that one out

Work hard and follow the program. It is real and it will work. There is nothing else out there like this.

Edited by Scotty. It was too encouraging. ;D

READ the BASIC concepts, the books and other people's threads and DON'T look for encouragement to CONTINUE an affair or to make an affair seem OKAY. NOT HERE. Not gonna happen.

Not sure what you 'need' to feel the hope so I'll take a wild stab in the dark

There are people who have recovered their marriages and have been happy for years.
There are people who are currently recovering their marriages and are happy
There are people who have just started recovery and are learning to feel safe again.
There are people who are in Plan B who are waiting for the affair to end but who are having spectacular personal recoveries.
There are people in Plan A who are just starting to learn about marriage and themselves.
There are others who are in between any of the above.

I would say in the majority, most regular posters on MB have made their peace with themselves and are living a good and fruitful life.

How about using your time here to learn the Marriage Builders program? We are not here to learn songs and poems, but how to save our marriages.

If you want to learn how to do that, I would suggest you start with the book Surviving an Affair. Keep your ears open, you have alot to learn!

It's surprising to me that I'm getting these type of responses. I truly just wanted to begin a list of encouraging words that people could quickly turn to in their time of struggle. That was my intent in posting this.

How sad. I'm struggling greatly right now, and people want to pick apart my desire to encourage others who are in a similar place of despair.

And why are you struggling right now? What is bothering YOU? Can we do something to help? Maybe we could suggest that you read the material here and LEARN how to SAVE your marriage and CREATE a BETTER marriage than you ever dreamed? Hmmmmmm That COULD be considered encouragement, NO?

If you are struggling, how about picking up the book Surviving an Affair and learning how to save your marriage? Ask those who ARE NOT in despair how they resolved their marriage problems, that is the solution.

A good place to start would be in your own marriage since your husband was just told about your affair. What are you doing to heal your victim? What are you doing to resolve your own marriage problems?

Redeem_Me, don't go anywhere yet. See this thread yet(I suppose You most likely HAVE). You know you are NOT alone.

http://forum.marriagebuilders.com/ubbt/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2402865&page=1

Huh? I just read through your thread, here -- > LINK

I was expecting to see some 2x4s, but you got several encouraging posts.

Why didn't respond individually to any of the posters that reached out to you?

Did you read the link that was provided to you?

Music, for sure, helped get me through some really rough patches following dday. But reading the posts/articles/links here on how to save my marriage helped me a lot more.

If you only knew what was being offered to you, you would beg for more of it.