Lysa TerKeurst remarries 2 years after ‘painful’ divorce

By Katelyn Webb, Thursday, January 18, 2024

Lysa TerKeurst, president of Proverbs 31 Ministries and author of “Forgiving What You Can’t Forget.” | Proverbs 31 Ministries

Ministry leader and bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst has announced she has remarried just over two years after she filed for divorce from her husband, Art TerKeurst, after 29 years of marriage.

The 54-year-old leader of Proverbs 31 Ministries and author of numerous New York Times bestselling books, including It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way and Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, announced her marriage in a social media post on Thursday.

“I want to invite you in to share a new chapter in my life,” TerKeurst captioned a series of snapshots from her wedding, including several in which she was flanked by her children and grandchildren.

In January of 2023, I met Chaz. And as the pages kept turning last year, we knew what we’d found in each other was love. A beautiful love that requires work like love always does. But a togetherness that is safe, honest, fun, funny and surrendered to the sacred way God tells us to love and care for each other.

We got engaged last fall, which I decided to hold private so I could tell as many people as possible face to face. I got to tell many of you when we saw each other at stores and airports and coffee shops and dinners and FaceTimes. Those were sweet conversations I treasure.

And then last week, surrounded by our family and some beautiful mountains, Chaz and I exchanged our vows. As soon as we were announced husband and wife, some fun music started playing. I invited our kids and grandkids to join in as we all danced in the gently falling snow.

TerKeurst filed for divorce from Art in December 2021 and publicly announced her decision in January 2022, revealing her husband of nearly three decades had engaged in “chosen patterns of behavior that dishonor God and the biblical covenant of marriage.” The couple has five adult children together.

In 2017, TerKeurst revealed she would be pursuing a divorce from her husband due to his infidelity and struggles with addiction. At the time, she wrote he had “been repeatedly unfaithful to me with a woman he met online” and was abusing substances. However, the couple renewed their vows just over a year later after working to restore their marriage.

TerKeurst later explained she pursued divorce for a second time after her husband “broke” those renewed vows. A court filing later revealed that Art had spent over $118,000 of the couple’s money on an affair with a woman he met on SugarDaddy.com.

“Over the past several years, I have fought really hard to not just save my marriage, but to survive the devastation of what consistent deception of one spouse does to the other,” she wrote at the time. “It’s brutal and heart crushing to constantly fear the hurtful choices of someone you love. I’ve had to learn the hard way there’s a big difference between mistakes (which we all make) and chosen patterns of behavior that dishonor God and the biblical covenant of marriage.”

In her latest post, TerKeurst emphasized the importance of holding both good and hard times with grace and perspective. She highlighted the significance of viewing life as a continuous story rather than isolated events, maintaining hope in the face of adversity, and trusting in God’s faithfulness.

“God is kind. God is faithful. When life begs me to believe otherwise, I remind myself that God’s not done yet. There’s more to be revealed. We’ll see,” she wrote.

TerKeurst also revealed her personal growth through experiences of uncertainty, disappointment and pain. She expressed gratitude for learning to trust in God’s plan, even when it meant facing rejection or delays.

“And though I sometimes still feel pricks of pain over some really hard stuff in the past, I’m so grateful I didn’t stay stuck trying to make things happen my way and in my timing. In my stubbornness, I thought I knew what was best. It was God’s grace all those times He told me ‘no,’” she wrote.

“God helped me learn to lean on Him in the midst of my biggest disappointments and how to sit alone and be okay. He helped me fight battles that are still going on, not with one great big miraculous intervention, but instead with daily provisions and assurances.”