How it all Started

* This was the original about me page on my blog, His Dearly Loved Daughter. It’s the first post I wrote back in January of 2017. A lot has changed since then, so I feel I need to explain some things for those who are new to our story.

For one thing, I don’t use the name Esther Hosea anymore, and get to write under my real name, Cherith Peters, instead. But more importantly, our story is a very different one! God has done amazing things in us as individuals as well as in our marriage. In addition, He has used this little ministry to help other people walking this terrible, painful road.

But I thought it was important to leave this little piece I wrote to introduce myself to the world so many years ago available so those who are right there, in that place where I was, can hear the pain in my story and the cry of my heart and can be encouraged to see what God has done!

January, 2017 – About Me

Welcome to His Dearly Loved Daughter, I’m so glad you’re here!  I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a few things about me.  My story is not unique. It is the story of countless women all over the world and throughout time. Perhaps it’s your story too.  I struggle to find my identity in a God who loves me passionately as I live my life loving a husband who has broken my heart over and over again in his battles to break free from sexual addiction.

This particular story is so isolating. If it is your story too then we need each other. We need to know we aren’t alone.  To remind each other of God’s love and faithfulness because it’s easy to lose sight of when people are so unfaithful. If you are His daughter, dear sister, then you are DEARLY LOVED! Cling to that truth – it is the lifeblood that will get you through this battle and the next and that ultimately lets us all know, the war has already been won!

I am not an expert. I’m not coming to you as someone who has already won this war. I’m right in the thick of it.  As I write this, it has only been a month since I  caught my love in his most recent affair.  I’m not here to tell you what to do, I’m here to walk this painful road WITH you!  I’m here to share my story in hopes that it will be an encouragement to you.

I could be anyone.  We never really know what the person next to us is carrying!  That’s why I’ve chosen to write this blog anonymously.  While it is our true story, it really could be anyone’s story and I don’t want it to be about me or my love. I want it to be about the God who sustains.  The loving Father who carries me through and who can carry you through as well. It really is all about Him. I am simply the daughter He dearly loves!

Esther Hosea

Finally, let me close by telling you a little bit about the name I chose to write under: Esther Hosea.

Hosea was an amazing man, called by God to love an unfaithful spouse in order to demonstrate to a nation that God loves and pursues His people despite their tendency to wander. The story reminds me that the pain I feel each time I am betrayed is felt by my Heavenly Father each time I wander from His perfect love.  Still,  He continues to pursue me and to love me. It inspires me to do the same.

Esther was just a regular young woman who found herself in the middle of a story that just didn’t make any sense to her.  It was a story that required great courage and unwavering trust in God’s sovereign plan.  It was a story that demanded obedience without the promise of a happy ending for her. In fact, that obedience could have cost her life!  Yet Esther chose to recognize that, as her wise cousin put it, perhaps she had been created for such a time as this.

God doesn’t make mistakes.  He has put each of us in the story we’re in.  The pain isn’t His doing, it is the result of sin, but He knew about the pain and He has a purpose and a plan.  I want to be bold, courageous, and obedient like Esther and Hosea and recognize that perhaps God created me for exactly this story and to trust that the ending He has written will bring glory to His mighty name!  Won’t you join me?