Meet John and Genevieve Keefe
JOHN
Hey Faith Bible, I’m John and my wife's name is Genevieve. We have 5 kids, 6 grandchildren and we’ve been married 40 years. When we were teenagers, both our parents divorced so we had a lot of fear going into marriage. We made an early commitment that divorce was not an option, but our foundation was ourselves and even though we thought we were Christians, we were just religious.
GENEVIEVE
After seven years of marriage, by God’s grace, we became believers within three months of each other. For many years following, we did the best we knew to have a marriage like the one we see explained in Scripture but pressures from parenting, career demands and each of our own unresolved past hurts weighed on our relationship and we experienced being tossed by circumstances more than healthy and resilient teamwork.
We didn’t always respond well to the pressures and felt isolation and wounds grow between us. Those weighed heavy on our hearts because we love each other and wanted to succeed in marriage. And we continued in our commitment that divorce was not an option for us.
JOHN
About eight years ago our family experienced some life altering traumatic events. We questioned our faith and experienced the loss of expectations for how we thought life would play out. Genevieve and I responded differently to the trauma. While Genevieve drew closer to Jesus, she also struggled with fear and unforgiveness.
I stopped pursuing Jesus, sought comfort through worldly things and resented God for allowing the trauma. God was tender with me and didn’t reject me because of my anger but taught me how to lament. We also found help here at Faith Bible. We committed to the hard, sanctifying work of re:generation, re|engage, and Trauma Reboot.
Our fears and worldly comfort were replaced by love for Jesus who gave us rest. When we turned to Jesus, we grew closer to Him and closer to one another. We now experience joy together more often than ever before and our former ways of coping with the unexpected are being transformed by God’s truth.
GENEVIEVE
We thank God that He has helped us learn we can be totally honest with Him and with each other. Even though we still sometimes have conflict from misunderstandings, old patterns of reacting, and prideful attitudes, we are a stronger and better team because Jesus is at the heart of our marriage. And thankfully those things no longer drive us to isolation and deeper wounds.
We see growth in giving grace to each other and respect and love for each other being produced out of conflicts between us. Jesus always steps into those messy places with us, and He is compassionate and merciful as He teaches us how to find peaceful reconciliation.
Hey Faith Bible, I’m John and my wife's name is Genevieve. We have 5 kids, 6 grandchildren and we’ve been married 40 years. When we were teenagers, both our parents divorced so we had a lot of fear going into marriage. We made an early commitment that divorce was not an option, but our foundation was ourselves and even though we thought we were Christians, we were just religious.
GENEVIEVE
After seven years of marriage, by God’s grace, we became believers within three months of each other. For many years following, we did the best we knew to have a marriage like the one we see explained in Scripture but pressures from parenting, career demands and each of our own unresolved past hurts weighed on our relationship and we experienced being tossed by circumstances more than healthy and resilient teamwork.
We didn’t always respond well to the pressures and felt isolation and wounds grow between us. Those weighed heavy on our hearts because we love each other and wanted to succeed in marriage. And we continued in our commitment that divorce was not an option for us.
JOHN
About eight years ago our family experienced some life altering traumatic events. We questioned our faith and experienced the loss of expectations for how we thought life would play out. Genevieve and I responded differently to the trauma. While Genevieve drew closer to Jesus, she also struggled with fear and unforgiveness.
I stopped pursuing Jesus, sought comfort through worldly things and resented God for allowing the trauma. God was tender with me and didn’t reject me because of my anger but taught me how to lament. We also found help here at Faith Bible. We committed to the hard, sanctifying work of re:generation, re|engage, and Trauma Reboot.
Our fears and worldly comfort were replaced by love for Jesus who gave us rest. When we turned to Jesus, we grew closer to Him and closer to one another. We now experience joy together more often than ever before and our former ways of coping with the unexpected are being transformed by God’s truth.
GENEVIEVE
We thank God that He has helped us learn we can be totally honest with Him and with each other. Even though we still sometimes have conflict from misunderstandings, old patterns of reacting, and prideful attitudes, we are a stronger and better team because Jesus is at the heart of our marriage. And thankfully those things no longer drive us to isolation and deeper wounds.
We see growth in giving grace to each other and respect and love for each other being produced out of conflicts between us. Jesus always steps into those messy places with us, and He is compassionate and merciful as He teaches us how to find peaceful reconciliation.