Uploaded July 2020 | Updated September 2026, 49 minutes ago

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Pt 1: Toni and her six children find happiness and relief from emotional abuse after a 20-year marriage. In Part 1, she describes her happy childhood, her budding faith, her ill-fated first marriage, followed by her second marriage to a Christian man who gave her the unspoken message: "You don't matter. You're not even worth looking at. You are here to serve me."

As a committed Christian who homeschooled her children, Toni had read every marriage book, gone to Christian marriage retreats, prayed and fasted, signed the "Dennis Rainey contract" saying she'd never consider divorce, and sought both individual and couples counseling. But nothing could change her angry, sullen husband who wouldn't help around the farm...and sometimes was jobless for long periods of time.

At one point her counselor told her, "This is the worst case I've ever come across. If you don't get out, you will die." Toni replied, "I can't get out! I don't have a choice." Find out how the counselor replied, and the miraculous way the Lord called Toni to get out.

Part 2 tells how she got out and rebuilt her life.
Link to Part 2: youtu.be/wZlKEH06AP4
She talks about —
🔹 Getting back on her feet financially
🔹 Juggling six kids as a single mother and RN (registered nurse)
🔹 Seeing major health improvements after the divorce
🔹 Getting treatment her PTSD with #EMDR
🔹 Rebuilding her self-respect
🔹 The joy of not walking on eggshells anymore

ABOUT
Gretchen Baskerville is a Christian divorce recovery leader and researcher. Since 1998, she has worked in churches in Southern California. She helps heartbroken people find strength, courage, and healing. For more than 25 years she has worked with Christian women and men going through difficult, life-saving divorces, listening with compassion to those who have suffered from domestic violence, betrayal, infidelity, addicted partners, and emotional abuse.

Herself the survivor of a toxic marriage, she walked through her own lifesaving divorce and was a single mother for many years. Today she is happily remarried. She is a graduate of Wheaton College with a degree in Bible and Christian Education.

For more information:
Website and Blog: LifeSavingDivorce.com
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lifesavingdivorce.bsky.social
Facebook facebook.com/lifesavingdivorce
Instagram instagram.com/gretchenbaskerville
You Tube youtube.com/@lifesavingdivorce
Twitter twitter.com/GGBaskerville

What's a Life-Saving Divorce? A Life-Saving Divorce is a divorce for serious reasons: a pattern of sexual immorality, physical abuse, chronic emotional abuse, domestic violence, felony behavior, life-destroying addictions, or abandonment/neglect.

My Book: "The Life-Saving Divorce: Hope for People Leaving Destructive Relationships"
Paperback or eBook: amzn.to/3CCBsnr AUDIOBOOK: amzn.to/4f52Mh4
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.