Mallards: From Break Up to Make Up

CBN.com - "The earliest memory was in sixth grade, before elementary school. I was behind the woods smoking pot and alcohol as a young teenager, and it just evolved into everything. They say pot is the gateway drug. I moved on to cocaine and LSD, and it just went on and on," Tommy Mallards tells The 700 Club.

Tommy supported his addiction by dealing drugs, a lifestyle that took its toll on his new girlfriend, Wendy.

"When I met Tommy, I was an emotional wreck. I grew up in a very physical, abusive relationship. I was very rebellious, I was very wild. So, when I met Tommy we had a lot in common in that area," she says.

The two lived together for three years before marrying.

"The beginning stages were very rough years. I drank beer, sometimes whiskey and hard liquor every day. I definitely smoked pot every day. Anytime you are under the influence of anything, you don’t think clearly and the smallest remark from my wife would sometimes just trigger an outrage," remembers Tommy.

Violent arguments became the norm in the Mallard household.

"I mean, hitting and kicking and just physical, they were bad and we lived like that for years," adds Wendy.

Between the arguments, break-ups, and separations, Wendy knew something was missing.

"I always felt like I was just searching and searching for happiness, something. I was never happy. I could never be happy. I was never content," says Wendy.

Wendy found happiness when she accepted Jesus Christ at a local church.

"Even though I was saved and I was a Christian, I still had these areas of my life that I didn’t know how to change. I didn’t know much about the Bible. I was growing a lot. I was so hungry for it, I wanted to be at every open service, every Bible Study," she says.

Tommy reluctantly agreed to go to church with Wendy.

"I was a Sunday morning Christian because Monday morning, I was back doing this other stuff. She was living for the Lord and I was not, and it was just the clash from good and evil in our lives that just destroyed us. I remember telling her, just daring her to leave me," he says.

Wendy had enough for herself and their three children.

"We were going to church and we’re supposed to be this Christian family and on the outside it looked good, but on the inside and at home, it wasn’t.  He was still drinking and still smoking. The fighting was still going on and that’s when I said, 'I don’t want to live like this,' so I took the kids and I left."

The Mallards filed for divorce immediately. The children, however, kept Tommy and Wendy communicating on a regular basis.

"Every time I would talk to him on the phone, it was cussing, fighting, and bitter. He was very bitter and me, I was always cheerful and tried to be nice and sweet. Sometimes I’d argue right back with him and we’d fall back into that same pattern. But, I was still continuing to go to church, and I was staying faithful, and I had my girls there and living my little life. Inside, I had conviction because I knew God’s ultimate design was for us to be united to be one and to live this life together," says Wendy.

Just 30 days before their divorce was final, Wendy changed her prayer for Tommy.

"I surrendered to God--whatever is Your will, not my will. I called him [Tommy] that night, and he had just picked up his Bible," she remembers.

Tommy says, "I didn’t know what to do and what to read. I just opened up to the book of Matthew and started reading. My wife called 15 or 20 minutes later and I was just laying in bed reading and crying out to God. What have I done? I just fell down on my knees in front of my coffee table, and I just started praying to God, and i just cried out to Him. I remember lifting my hands up to heaven. That’s when my life changed. I stopped smoking pot right then, right there. I stopped drinking, right then, right there..."

"It was a revelation when I really accepted Christ into my heart. It was as if the scales were removed from my eyes, and I could see clearly years of mistakes, and how I thought I was dead. I could see how I was dead wrong. I can remember looking into the past and seeing everything I did to my wife. It was the way I treated her, the way I talked to her, and that was so wrong. I thought it was so right, and I just humbled myself before the Lord. I cried out, I was so ashamed once I realized the sin in my life."

Tommy shared his newfound faith with Wendy and wanted them to become a family again.

"Once I gave my life to the Lord, I knew that I had to at least attempt to salvage this marriage and my family," says Tommy.

Tommy and Wendy didn’t sign the divorce papers. Instead, they recommitted their life and marriage to God.

"If you trust in Jesus Christ, He will change your life. He will take away the pain and the tragedy and the desperation. He’ll give you hope, joy, love, peace, and most importantly everlasting life!"