Have you ever prayed for someone or something for 20 years or more? On a recent episode of the Sacred Scar Story Series on the Your Hope-Filled Perspective podcast, I had an inspiring conversation with Bunny Yekzaman about her 20-year journey of praying in faith for her husband’s salvation (watch or listen here: How to Pray in Faith and Release Control to God’s Timing – Episode 290). During this time, she learned to surrender control to God and trust His timing. In today’s post, Bunny shares more of her journey, illustrating how God’s provision marked the beginning of a beautiful sacred scar and demonstrating that even through pain and disobedience, God’s faithfulness can transform wounds into a powerful testimony of healing and redemption.
How God’s Provision Marked the Beginning of a Beautiful Sacred Scar
By Bunny Yekzaman
Can a scar be beautiful? Can it remind you of a painful past and yet cause you to rejoice? It absolutely can be when the healer of that scar is the Lord.
We all have scars and so often they remind us of the pain that created them, but in this blog I want to share how it doesn’t have to.
Dating an Unbeliever as a Young Christian Woman
As a young Christian woman in college, I had heard my whole life that I should never marry an unbeliever. No one ever explained why, they just said I shouldn’t.
A lack of teaching that this principle came from God only made the “do not” seem like another set of rules to control me. When moral values and Godly principles that are created by God are not accredited to God those morals and values take on a different meaning and are easily thrown to the wayside.
It also sets up our young people to make decisions based on feelings and not facts or principles that God has put into place for their protection.
So, when I made the decision to date an unbeliever in college, it brought me pain, disappointment, many tears and a scar upon my heart.
I met an international student named Hassan, the captain of the soccer team, raised Muslim and yet had denounced his religion and had become an atheist. Yet, I was drawn to him by a wink of the eye and a motivation to somehow save him.
All would have been well had I built a relationship with him as Christian woman sharing Christ with him. But no, I was more interested in sharing myself with him and used the excuse that I had to be close to him to share Christ with him.
Such deception the enemy throws at us when we are not grounded in the word of God.
I’m going to fast forward to January of 1979. Hassan, due to a mess up in documentation at the college had lost his soccer scholarship and without it would have to return to his home country of Iran. We had been dating for five months and we were “in love”. He didn’t want to leave & I didn’t want him to.
So, we decided we would get married. I was sure our love would be strong to face any differences in cultural and religious beliefs. Again, this thinking came from a lack of understanding God’s moral values and principles.
This would also be the beginning of a wound.
Understanding How I was Getting in God’s Way
Everything seemed pretty good until we had our first child. Once I held my baby girl in my arms, I knew that she needed to know Jesus loves her and that I loved her. The importance of my faith deepened, and I began searching God’s word for His guidance in ways I had never done before.
The more I studied, the more I committed my time to Christ and raising my daughter for Him, the more my husband became frustrated.
He was ok when it was just he and I living in our own worlds of belief, but now I wanted our children to know God through Christ Jesus. This was not acceptable to him.
As our family grew to four children, my heart and faith grew deeper and stronger, but the challenge also grew deeper and stronger. I found myself on my knees crying out to God for my husband’s salvation. I needed God to help me save my husband. But what I didn’t realize was that I was getting in God’s way.
From the time I agreed to date my husband as an unbeliever I was putting myself between Hassan and God. I was supposed to share Christ with him not myself and now I was dealing with the effects of my disobedience.
It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand my disobedience at the time because the effects of disobedience are the same whether I understood or not.
Trusting God for Provision
As our children grew so did our financial needs. One of our daughters had sprouted up and was in need of some new clothes. I was taking our four children to church, though it was a fight to do so. My husband felt left out and abandoned every time we left for church and would be in a bad mood when we returned home. One Sunday, he looked at the check book and saw I had written a check for $50 to the church. Oh, he was not happy about that.
He couldn’t understand how I could give the church money when our daughter needed clothes. I told him God would provide. He was sure only if he got a third job or if I went to the church begging through a prayer request would we get the money. Quickly, without thinking, I told him, “NO! I won’t say a word to anyone, and you’ll see, God will provide what our daughter needs by next weekend.”
Oh my, I had just promised God would do something I had not even asked Him if He’d do.
The week seemed to pass so fast, and it was Saturday, the day my daughters and I had to sing at a fellow church in town. The pastor was a family friend and asked my husband and son to serve at a Mother’s Day banquet at his church and we were to sing. But God still had not provided the money for the clothes my daughter needed, and it was Saturday. There was only one day left, and my husband was watching and waiting for God to fail. I went into my closet to get ready for the banquet, fell on my knees and cried out to God.
I told Him I was sorry for saying He would do something without asking Him first and that I trusted Him but didn’t trust my trust in Him. I got up, wiped my tears, got dressed and we headed to the church.
When God’s Provision Changes Hearts
That night we sang, ate and even received a Mother’s Day gift. The pastor closed in prayer and the evening was over. I thought it was, that is. After the pastor said amen and thanked everyone for coming, he said this: “As you leave this evening you will see a little blue box sitting on top of the ice maker, please drop in a loving offering for this family who came to serve and sing for us tonight.” I knew immediately that was God’s provision!
But He not only provided the money for my daughter’s clothes she needed, He provided the beginning of healing my wounded heart as He began working on my husband’s heart that night.
After buying what my daughter needed my husband told me to write a check to the church for any left-over money. I did. It was $50. The same amount he had been upset with me giving.
Wow, God is amazing.
Years later, I learned my daughter, who needed the clothes, had overheard my conversation with her dad and she too had been watching to see if God would provide. So that night, she too saw God answer and sealed her faith in Him.
A Beautiful Sacred Scars Serves as a Testimony of God’s Faithfulness
How I wish this were a book and not a blog because there is so much more to this story than I can tell here. So many incredible ways God worked in my life and my husband’s life. The little blue box set in motion my husband seeking to understand the reality of God and His faithfulness to provide.
Weeks later, the Lord also revealed to me to stop asking for my husband’s salvation and to start thanking Him for it in advance.
To pray in faith, not in doubt and to get myself out of His way once and for all. To trust He is at work, and I do not have to prove God to Hassan, God will prove Himself. And you know what? He did.
That wound in my heart has been healed and sealed with a beautiful sacred scar to remind me that God is a faithful healer, deliverer, redeemer and the maker of all things new. He has taken my mess and made it into a message of incredible love and hope.
Today, my husband is not only a believer but is a committed man of God, sharing his faith and how God got his attention, changed his heart and life and has made our marriage a strong testimony of God’s forgiveness and healing. My husband surrendered to ministry and is serving as the pastor for the nursing home I work at, while working full time in a local school district where he speaks boldly about his faith and love for Christ.
Scars can be beautiful when they are the scars of God’s healing touch upon the wounds of our lives. I’m so thankful He touched my wounds, and I know He will touch and heal yours as well.
What if the hardest moments of your life were the start of something beautiful? Learn how God’s provision can transform pain into a sacred scar that reminds us of His healing touch. Share on X How God’s Provision Marked the Beginning of a Beautiful Sacred Scar Share on X
About Bunny Yekzaman
Bunny Yekzaman is a child of the King, a wife of over 40 years, mother of four & grandmother of many grandchildren She is a disaster relief chaplain, and works as an Enrichment specialist for a nursing home. Her passion is sharing God’s love & truth with a faith in His faithfulness to His promises. She lives with hope for her lost family and friends and finds it her calling to pray in faith for them.
Connect with Bunny: Website / Facebook / Instagram
Sacred Scars: Resting in God’s Promise that Your Pain is Not Wasted
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We all endure trials, pain, and hardship in this life. Too often we believe these experiences disqualify us from being useful to God. But the truth is, your past pain and brokenness serve as preparation for what God wants to do in and through you – if you will surrender to and trust him.
Just as Jesus’s scars didn’t disappear after his resurrection, our emotional or physical scars tell our story and lend credence to our testimony of God’s love and power. If you are ready to turn your past pain into present comfort and future hope, let Dr. Bengtson be your compassionate guide.
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