Great is Thy Faithfulness

There was always something about John Edwards that I couldn't quite put my finger on. For some reason, I didn't trust him. He seemed, I don't know...slick.

Call me clairvoyant, but did you catch Elizabeth Edwards on Oprah last week or on the Today show this morning? You can watch Matt Lauer's 15-minute interview here .

Though she is promoting her new book, Resilience, her appearances have mostly centered around the former presidential candidate's affair.

Elizabeth revealed that she had asked for only one thing as a wedding gift — just one thing.

"I wanted him to be faithful to me, that was the one thing I asked for, that was really important to me," Elizabeth told Oprah , in an exclusive interview to be published in the June issue of O magazine.

She was not into material things — jewelry, clothes, fancy cars or a big house.
All she wanted was for her husband to be faithful. That's all.

Growing up, Elizabeth Edwards had seen the impact of her father's infidelity on her family. Her beautiful mother had loss confidence in herself and her abilities.

Now Elizabeth was going through the same thing.
After 29 years of marriage, John admitted that he had been unfaithful.

The affair had leveled her she said. When her husband disclosed his indiscretion, she had gotten physically sick. She cried. She screamed. She blamed herself. Like her mother, she lost confidence in who she was and began to question her own sense of self-worth. She wondered: What did she do that caused this to happen? Was it the weight? Was it how she looked at night with curlers in her hair?

Elizabeth Edwards still loves John. She said that he's a supportive husband, a wonderful father, a great provider.

"This is a really good man, who did this very bad thing," she said. "You take out this one thing and you have a perfect man."

Elizabeth acknowledged to Oprah that she was looking for perfection. She's learned, however, that "no one's perfect. People make mistakes."

But this is a new reality for Elizabeth. It's hard rebuilding trust after nearly three decades of marriage. She quietly said, "the way we were, is no longer the way we can be."

Today Elizabeth, who is battling Stage 4 breast cancer, is living out her last days in a dream home on a 28,000-square foot estate.
But she never asked for a dream home. The material things didn't really matter.
She wanted a dream man: a husband who was faithful.
But as she noted to Oprah, "Things interrupt your dreams."

What do you think?
Was Elizabeth Edwards being realistic in asking her husband to be faithful to her?
Is it too much to ask for a faithful husband?
It's so easy to give material things — clothes, money, cars, jewelry, homes — but why is it so hard to give the one thing money can't buy?

My boss, who's been married more than 25 years, has always said that faithfulness is a choice.
It hurts that too many men choose the wrong option.