Editor's Note: Do you need sound, Biblically-based advice on an issue in your marriage or family?  Dr. David Hawkins, director of the Marriage Recovery Center, will address questions from Crosswalk readers in his weekly column. Submit your question to TheRelationshipDoctor@gmail.com.

"She's gone," said the man on the other end of the line. "She wants a divorce. I guess there's nothing left for me to do."

"He left for another woman," a woman tearfully said to me during a recent counseling session. "He's been having an affair for the last six months and I'm the last to know. I guess it's time to get an attorney."

Another woman called asking me if there was any hope for her marriage.

"Tell me what's going on," I prompted.

"My husband left for another woman two years ago. I never felt a sense that I should give up. He just broke up with her and has been calling me. What should I do?"

Just yesterday I received the following email from a man whose wife had left, saying she needed time to sort out her feelings about him and their marriage.

Dear Dr. David. Recently my wife left me. She said she was tired of living with my moods and anger, which I admit now that I've had for a long time. She says she told me that I needed to change, though her leaving took me off guard. I call her every day to tell her I love her, but I know that just pushes her further away. I can't help myself. I want her back desperately. Is there anything I can do to save my marriage before it's too late?

Each of these men and women feels desperate about their marriage. With pain that is palpable, they feel unsure of what to do, and when they ask for opinions from others, they receive the following, often contradictory counsel:

• "Give them time, and they'll change their mind."
• "Leave them. You deserve better."
• "Don't put your life on hold."
• "You've got to pick up the pieces and move on."
• "Get the best attorney you can get and go after them."
• "Hang in there. He/ she will come crawling back one of these days."
• "God will save your marriage."

What is a person to do when they are in the midst of the greatest crisis they've ever known? How do they make sense out of Scripture that states ‘God hates divorce,' and yet their marriage seems completely finished? When is the right time to admit that a marriage is over?

These questions plague anyone who has ever struggled with the topic of divorce. Many offer counsel not seeming to understand the struggle. Here are a few things to consider if you face the prospect of divorce, a topic that I deal with at length in my book Living Beyond a Broken Marriage.