*Lydia Meredith spent nearly 30 years married to Reverend Dennis A. Meredith, only to be left stunned the day he announced that he was in love with a man.
In her candid new memoir, “The Gay Preacher’s Wife: How My Gay Husband Deconstructed My Life and Reconstructed My Faith,” readers will find out how she healed her broken heart through faith.
Below is an excerpt from a book:
I was one of those preachers’ wives who sat in the pew on many a Sunday morning while my “real” life was a fraud. i discovered several years into my marriage that my husband was cheating on me–with men–numerous men. (And women too, I later found out). But I stayed. I stayed through the broken promises and the humiliation because I believed and hoped that things got better. I watched my husband stand in that pulpit on Sunday morning, preaching one message and living out yet another. I needed answers.
The first place I turned to for answers were God. I prayed. I wept. I prayed. I wept. I prayed and I wept. God woke me at 3 a.m. I sat straight up in the middle of my bed. … What did Jesus really say about homosexuality? What was Jesus’ message about gays?
I prayed my entire young life for God to send me a husband–God Always answers my prayers–why did I end up marrying a gay man?
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Meredith sat down for a chat with RollingOut in which she said, “I loved my husband … I still love him.” She also shared how in 2006, Rev. Meredith told her that he found love with another man.
“He left me for another man. He told me he wanted to live the rest of his life as a gay man,” she shares. “At that time, I didn’t know he was in a relationship with a man, a man that he’d fallen in love with. Most of the time when we were in therapy discussing his struggles with same-sex relationships, it was never a relationship; it was always [just] sex. This particular time it was very different. He had fallen in love with a man.”
Lydia attempted to work through her husband’s gay infidelities, but she eventually came to her senses after he abandoned her from 2005 to 2008, and she ultimately filed for divorce.
“I filed for divorce. He wasn’t happy about it. The infidelity didn’t cause me to leave my marriage. I felt there was nothing in my marriage that couldn’t be fixed.”
Lydia Meredith is the founder of Beacon of Hope, Inc.—Renaissance Learning Center, with a mission to lift poor children and their families out of poverty.
“The Gay Preacher’s Wife: How My Gay Husband Deconstructed My Life and Reconstructed My Faith” is now available for purchase.