Innocent?
Innocent?
You are my shelter and my shield; I put my hope in Your word. (Ps. 119:114)
It seemed so innocent at first. April thought it was kind of endearing that Ron, her husband of three months, seemed to be possessive of her time and attention. She just thought it meant he loved her. But soon he not only objected to her being with her friends; he also became jealous when she wanted to talk to her parents and her sister on the phone.
April began to feel like she was suffocating. And if she expressed opinions about anything that differed from Ron’s, he reprimanded her. Soon the verbal outbursts escalated, and one evening when she arrived home from work twenty minutes late, he pinned her against a wall and squeezed her arms so hard she had bruises the next day. He accused her of seeing another man. He scrounged through her purse and took away her cell phone.
The next day she called her sister from work. April tearfully told Amy about what had happened the night before. “April,” Amy answered her, “this can’t go on. We’ve been praying, but we just didn’t know. As a police officer, Dave sees this type of thing all the time, and we were starting to suspect.”
“Well, it’ll probably get better. Ron said he was sorry last night. He was almost crying because he felt so bad.”
“No, April, listen to me. It sounds like Ron has some serious problems. We can help him get counseling if he’s willing to do it. But while your safety is at stake, we should get you to a safe shelter.”
Victims of domestic abuse experience varying degrees of danger and manipulation. If you find yourself on either side of this experience—the abused wife, the caring friend—make sure to seek immediate help.