Divorce

Even though I am a child of divorce, it is a subject I have avoided for the majority of my life. Recently after realizing how hurt I've been feeling about my parents divorce, well most so about my Ted's abandonment, it's a subject I need to actually deal with!

Being LDS there is often a negative light on divorce. I do like this quote from Dallon H. Oaks

"There are many good Church members who have been divorced. I speak first to them. We know that many of you are innocent victims—members whose former spouses persistently betrayed sacred covenants or abandoned or refused to perform marriage responsibilities for an extended period. Members who have experienced such abuse have firsthand knowledge of circumstances worse than divorce.

"When a marriage is dead and beyond hope of resuscitation, it is needful to have a means to end it. I saw examples of this in the Philippines. Two days after their temple marriage, a husband deserted his young wife and has not been heard from for over 10 years. A married woman fled and obtained a divorce in another country, but her husband, who remained behind, is still married in the eyes of the Philippine law. Since there is no provision for divorce in that country, these innocent victims of desertion have no way to end their married status and go forward with their lives.

"We know that some look back on their divorces with regret at their own partial or predominant fault in the breakup. All who have been through divorce know the pain and need the healing power and hope that come from the Atonement. That healing power and that hope are there for them and also for their children."

Dallin H. Oaks, “Divorce,” Ensign, May 2007, 70–73