Here’s a familiar story: Woman meets man… woman falls in love… months later man tells woman, “I just wanna be friends.” Now here’s the unfamiliar part: A week later, woman learns she’s several thousand dollars in debt because man committed fraud against her. (Audio included..)

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Not exactly the kind of ending to a love story I envisioned for myself. All this happened several years ago, right around Valentine’s Day—a time when everyone else celebrates romance. But for me, the whole thing was a heartache.

My ex-boyfriend had two options: jail time or put the credit card in his own name (he’d opened the account under my good name in order to obtain credit). I had the authorities take the appropriate action and reestablish my credit records, and my ex put the card in his own name. But emotionally my world was falling apart. So I put everything I owned into storage and hit the road.

"With each passing hour, I gained hope"

Not knowing what the future held frightened me. I knew I’d have to take charge of my life and plan out a new course. All I could think to do was hop in my car and drive to my sister’s place several states away. I didn’t stop driving until I reached Dallas 24 hours later.

I can remember virtually every minute of that drive. And with each passing hour, I gained hope and courage by leaning o­n a favorite biblical proverb: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

A month later I was settled in Austin, Texas, waiting tables at a famous brewery, and earning lots of cash. There’s a recipe for contentment, right? Wrong! It didn’t make me any happier. And the excitement of a new city was short-lived.

I replayed memories of my failed relationship over and over and dwelled o­n unanswerable questions: What did I do wrong? Why didn’t he love me back? What could I have done differently?

"I was tired of feeling anger and resentment"

One dawn, I picked up my copy of Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy . It’s a book that I regularly turn to as a guide in my spiritual journey. I found inspiration from this passage: “Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, enlarging, purifying, and elevating it.” Right then and there I reached out to that Love, who to me is God, o­n my knees. I called out: “Please, Father, let me know and feel your love again.”

I was tired of the anger and resentment. I yearned to feel innocence again. In what seemed just a matter of moments, an answer came. I felt a voice say, I’m right here, Tresha, and I love you very much. I felt God speaking to me. For the first night in six months, I slept peacefully with that tender reminder of God’s love for me.

The next morning, my to-do list was a no-brainer. I quit my job, paid off my lease, packed up the car and hit the road again—this time to return home. I was excited. I felt like I did have a loving relationship—and it was a permanent o­ne with God. I knew the coming days would be o­nes of rediscovering how to let myself feel His care.

Now, I’d love to say all the details of my life resolved from that moment o­n. Not true. I still had a lot to face when I returned home—finding a new apartment, dragging stuff out of storage, finding a job and still dealing with memories about my former boyfriend.

"I felt impelled to tell him I’d forgiven him"

But the difference was I really began to connect with God’s thoughts of compassion, tenderness and gentleness. Having glimpsed my precious bond with God, I could at any moment feel His love. And, you know, I felt this applied to everyone—even my ex.

The more I felt God’s love for me, the more I felt loved in countless ways. And the more I realized God loved even that old boyfriend, I stopped resenting how he wronged me. Eventually, knowing this enabled me to forgive him.

Seven years after our break-up, while home for Christmas, I felt impelled to tell him I’d forgiven him. I called him and asked if we could meet. When we did, not o­nly did he apologize, but something very tender occurred. I forgave myself. And that had been the missing piece. For eight years, I had buried deep anger toward myself that the situation even happened. That night, while he summarized the past years of his life, I realized how important it was we had gone our separate ways. We didn’t have much in common anymore.

As we parted, I wished him a wonderful year, and you know what? I meant every word of it. And that was it. No more guilt, anger, resentment, frustration, nothing but a clean canvas o­n which to paint the next series of meaningful relationships. Since then, we’ve talked a few times—he even told me he’s begun a more serious spiritual study of his own.

I came away with a gift, too: the realization that the most important relationship is the o­ne I have with God.

Written by Tresha Thorsen
Audio Narration also by Tresha Thorsen