Earlier in his career, my husband earned a great deal of money. Thanks to those earnings we were able to build and furnish our own house. We were delighted to move into it; but not long afterwards I noticed that my husband was beginning to act strange. He became irritable and high-strung. I also became aware that he was hiding something from me. A red light went on inside my head, for I knew that dishonesty between married couples never led to anything good. Before long we began experiencing financial problems. I knew that all this time my husband was earning good money, yet here it was disappearing without a trace. It turned out that he had borrowed money from a “dear friend” at a usurious rate and, after a while, had fallen behind in his payments. As a result, he had been forced to borrow money from other disreputable people. Not until he was really down and out, did he reveal the matter to me. Our parents and close family members gave us the last of their savings with which to pay off the debts. Meanwhile, we put our house up for sale. I was devastated. Where would we move if we sold the house? Leaving our family refuge was inconceivable. Hadn’t we worked so hard for it upon getting married? And weren’t our kids so happy here? (We had two at the time.) But what hurt me most was being kept in the dark by my husband for so long. He had not wanted to cause me undue worry – he told me later.

Coping with this situation was not easy for me. Why had this happened? – I asked God. In my prayers I begged for the strength to get through the crisis. I begged that the nightmarish situation besetting our family might be resolved. When my husband faced up to the extent of the problem and realized that without God there was little he could do about it, he turned in prayer to Our Blessed Mother. Our whole family made a pilgrimage to Czestochowa, to ask for Christ’s help through the intercession of His Mother.

Now I know that we received this help. God gave my husband the strength to weather the crisis and continue running the business. He sent him work contracts that gradually pulled us out of debt. He removed from our circle of friends the “dear one” who had all this time been telling us to cheat on those closest to us.

Satan is the father of lies. People do not realize how much evil he works through deceit. The lies are small at first, but then they grow progressively bigger and, before a person knows it, he finds himself wrapped in a whole web of them. But God is stronger than evil. He allowed my husband to earn enough money for us to be able to keep the house that we had built, and to pay off our debts and creditors. For this I am very grateful. I also thank God for the fact that my husband survived a severe beating, that none of the people who came to view our house wanted to buy it (there was always something they didn’t like about it), and, finally, for all the support we received from our closest family members. There is still more. God gave us a third child by which to strengthen our family and forget the unpleasant past. I have to say that I was full of apprehension when I learned I was expecting. How would I manage with three children and my work? But I know now that God looks after everything.

I am also very thankful for all our friends, who supported us with their prayers during those difficult times. I think especially of my aunt who always cheered my up and helped out with the children. It was she who told me not to despair since God gave people only such burdens as they were capable of bearing. Today I know this to be true, although at the time this was not easy to believe.

I have no idea what life will bring us in the future, but ever since that time our whole family has been praying every evening and thanking God for all that He continues to give us.

These days money and consumerism are all important. There is nothing worse than this. Money comes and money goes. It is God who ought to be most important. When this is so, people are able to cope with life’s crises and resolve their problems. I think that my husband’s fault consisted in the fact that at a given moment he felt himself to be self-sufficient. Why? Because he was earning a lot of money. Satan is cunning. He lies in wait for the slightest sign of human pride, and immediately he uses it to his purpose. Our family knows all about this.