Meet Robyn Van Den Bosch
Meet Robyn Van Den Bosch
I was raised in a Christian home, but the church I attended was very legalistic. I became a Christian when I trust Jesus at 12 years old, but I always felt like I needed to constantly be good enough to earn what was freely given to me.
In 2006, God taught me about his faithfulness. I was pregnant with my fourth child, but during one of my appointments I found out that there was no heartbeat. I was devastated. It felt like during that time all I kept hearing were stories about how God had saved other people’s children from diseases/illnesses and death. That wasn’t my story. But during this hard season, God showed me he was faithful. I poured myself into the Psalms and He brought me through the water, through the fire, and turned my darkness into light.
Then in 2015 I started attending the Women’s Bible study at Faith. We were walking through the book of Luke, a book I had studied before. But God used this study to teach me about his abundant, overwhelming love. Looking back, I see that God was preparing me for what was to come. Weeks before that study ended, on April 15, 2016 my whole world fell apart. I found out about my husband’s infidelity. I had been praying for my husband for years. I thought if I continued to pray to God, He would get us through this. I thought someday God would use our marriage story to show others about His forgiveness and love. After all, I served a God of the impossible. If God could forgive me of my sins, then I could forgive my husband and our marriage would be an example to others of God’s love and power.
But God continued to show me His overwhelming love. My husband and I went to counselor after counselor and nothing changed. I didn’t understand how God would be able to use me if I didn’t save my marriage (as if I was in control). I remember asking my sister “How could it ever be God’s will not to save my marriage? How could divorce ever be part of His plan and bring Him glory?”
God saving my marriage was not my story and on September 11, 2017 my marriage officially ended. And I have felt God’s overwhelming love through it all! I had been a stay at home mom and didn’t have a job to even go back to, but God provided. Most months my bills required more money than I made, but God provided. With every single need that came up (and there were many), God always provided. This isn’t to say that life is easy. I am a single mom with three teenagers and one in college. But God has and will continue to provide. He continues to overwhelm me with his Love and Faithfulness! There’s nothing I could have done to earn God’s love or save my marriage, but God still loves me.
“I remember my afflictions and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember then, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because if the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness… Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.” Lamentations 3: 19-23, 32
In 2006, God taught me about his faithfulness. I was pregnant with my fourth child, but during one of my appointments I found out that there was no heartbeat. I was devastated. It felt like during that time all I kept hearing were stories about how God had saved other people’s children from diseases/illnesses and death. That wasn’t my story. But during this hard season, God showed me he was faithful. I poured myself into the Psalms and He brought me through the water, through the fire, and turned my darkness into light.
Then in 2015 I started attending the Women’s Bible study at Faith. We were walking through the book of Luke, a book I had studied before. But God used this study to teach me about his abundant, overwhelming love. Looking back, I see that God was preparing me for what was to come. Weeks before that study ended, on April 15, 2016 my whole world fell apart. I found out about my husband’s infidelity. I had been praying for my husband for years. I thought if I continued to pray to God, He would get us through this. I thought someday God would use our marriage story to show others about His forgiveness and love. After all, I served a God of the impossible. If God could forgive me of my sins, then I could forgive my husband and our marriage would be an example to others of God’s love and power.
But God continued to show me His overwhelming love. My husband and I went to counselor after counselor and nothing changed. I didn’t understand how God would be able to use me if I didn’t save my marriage (as if I was in control). I remember asking my sister “How could it ever be God’s will not to save my marriage? How could divorce ever be part of His plan and bring Him glory?”
God saving my marriage was not my story and on September 11, 2017 my marriage officially ended. And I have felt God’s overwhelming love through it all! I had been a stay at home mom and didn’t have a job to even go back to, but God provided. Most months my bills required more money than I made, but God provided. With every single need that came up (and there were many), God always provided. This isn’t to say that life is easy. I am a single mom with three teenagers and one in college. But God has and will continue to provide. He continues to overwhelm me with his Love and Faithfulness! There’s nothing I could have done to earn God’s love or save my marriage, but God still loves me.
“I remember my afflictions and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember then, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because if the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness… Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.” Lamentations 3: 19-23, 32
Posted in Faces of Faith