At the age of 20, Kenna Christensen was newly married in the temple and beginning what she thought was an eternal marriage. Though it wasn’t easy, Kenna found healing through counseling, blogging, and a deepened sense of spirituality.
Tell me about your upbringing.
I grew up in Salt Lake City and then we moved to Spanish Fork, where I attended high school. I’m very social and I was on a dance team. I have a great family; they’ve always been very active in the Church and they’ve always supported and strengthened me.
What did you do after you graduated from high school?
I started working. At the time my parents were living in New Zealand, so I also went out there a few times for a few months. When I was 19, I met someone and we got married about nine months later. We were married for nine months and then he left me.
How did you meet your ex-husband?
I met him one night at a dance in Provo (Provo dances are really good dances) and we started dating from there. I was very young and all I can say is, I was infatuated and he was a returned missionary and had all the qualifications. At that time in my life, I wasn’t sure what questions to ask and what things to look for; I just went along with it. Ultimately, we got married in the temple. Once we were married, we had our ups and downs, but nothing to the point of getting a divorce. We were very poor; he was trying to get through school and I was working. I had heard that marriage can be difficult, especially the first year, so I was just thinking we were having our moments. But then I got a text one morning that he no longer wanted to be married and was leaving me. And that was that. I was shocked, completely blindsided. There was no working through it after that; it was 100% over. I didn’t understand what was happening. I grew up watching my parents and I knew that they would never get a divorce. I believed that marriage was forever, especially temple marriage. When it wasn’t forever, it completely turned my world upside down. That’s when I started writing and started a blog.
You were very young when you got married. Was that a difficult decision to make?
Not at all. I love Provo–I still live here–but my friends were all getting married, and that’s just what you do in Provo, and often it’s at a young age. That works great for some people and they’re super happy, but I wasn’t prepared in the way that I should have been. I didn’t know what to expect.
Did marriage meet your expectations at first?
Oh yeah, there were great points throughout our marriage. Experiencing everything for the first time was exciting. I thought I was creating the beginnings of an eternal family. I had an eternal companion and we had made these eternal covenants and commitments together. I loved being married. It’s interesting for people to hear me say that now because I’m divorced. They assume I’m bitter about marriage, but I value marriage so much more because of what I’ve been though.
I don’t think the Lord intends for people to go through divorce. I don’t think it’s in anyone’s plan, and it was really hard for me to wrap my head around. I think the Lord gives people opportunities to make right choices and to follow through, but people still have their agency. They will do with it what they want and the Lord isn’t going to get in the way of that.
