- Well to see Allen andLisa Robertson today

you'd never guess that 20 years ago

Allen ordered Lisa out of their house.

Lisa was left broken andsobbing in their backyard.

Both of them had brought serious baggage

into the relationship beginning

long before they were married.

- [Narrator] In 1999 Duck Dynasty's

Allen and Lisa Robertson hadbeen married for 10 years.

Allen suspected Lisa was having an affair.

And when she confessed,Allen asked her to move out.

- That point I was likeI don't want you here.

I don't want you in our house.

I don't want to sleep inthe same bed with you.

- [Narrator] Devastated, Lisa knew she had

to change her heart.

- [Lisa] I have nothing,without God I have nothing.

- [Narrator] Betrayed, Allenhad to learn to forgive.

Their crisis became their turning point.

20 years late Allen and Lisa share

how they learned toforgive on a daily basis

in their book Desperate Forgiveness

and why they help others do the same.

- Please welcome back to The 700 Club,

Allen and Lisa Robertson.

Great to see you guys.

- Thank you.

- You're the only couplefrom your whole clan

that I haven't interviewed so...

- There you go.

You saved the best for last.

- [Interviewer] I did!- That's exactly right.

- Well Allen the two of youbegan dating in high school.

What had happened, hadgone on in your life

that Lisa was not aware of?

- Well I had, of courseour family's history

is pretty well documented.

I grew up in a non Christian home.

But I was actually the best of the lot.

- [Interviewer] Of the worst.

- Yeah, the worst 'cause I went to church.

The pastor was up the street.

So I had learned all the right things

when I became a teenager.

Like a lot of teenagers Igot drawn to the dark side.

And it led me to being a prodigal son.

And unfortunately thegreatest regret of my life

was that I met Lisa at this point.

And she was in love withme since middle school.

She had stalked me over the playground.

And so she needed someoneto guide her in a good way.

And instead I corruptedher and made it worse.

- Lisa what secret fromyour past were you hiding?

- Well I had several.

I guess the first one that I really think

links the whole past together

is that whenever I wasseven I had a family member

who started molesting me,

and that lasted until Iwas 14 and at that point

I was old enough and bigenough to put a stop to it.

But then at 16 I had been dating a guy

for about nine months andfound out I was pregnant.

And so I went and talked to my parents

and we decided that the only thing to do

with this blob of tissue,because that's what we were told

was to get rid of it.

And so of course now at 53I know that that was not

a blob of tissue, that that was a child

that I aborted.

And you know so you combine all of those

and then you go into a marriage

and you bring a heck of alot of baggage with you.

- Well 10 years into your marriage, Lisa,

all of this stuff finally came to a head.

What happened?

- Well I had been working for Al's parents

doing duck calls andso I was taking orders

and someone called oneday and it was someone

that I used to date

and small talk became even intimate talk

and so I had an affair.

- [Interviewer] An emotional affair?

- Right, right, initially, yeah.

And then after that itwas a full blown affair.

- [Interviewer] It went on for how long?

- 14 months, yeah.

And you know the thing that plagues me

is that I asked God fora way out all the time,

every day, because I wanted out.

And He always showed me the door.

Every single day, He gave me a way out.

Because He does that.

If we ask for a way out of sin,

He will give us that way out.

For me it was honesty.

And I'd never been honest

because starting at seven years old

I couldn't tell what wasreally happening to me.

- So even you saw the doorand that was telling Allen

you just couldn't take it at that point.

- That's right.

- But Allen, whathappened because there was

a day where you all sat down,

the kids were in bed, andyou finally confronted Lisa.

What happened?

- Well, I did 'cause I was going crazy.

I'm trying to be associatepastor at our church,

a large church, and all this is going on

in my own life and soyou kind of go crazy.

And so it was a reliefto me when she finally

told the truth.

But what's interesting Wendy is,

and this is what the book is about,

whenever she was afraidthat I couldn't forgive her,

her fear was that Iwould walk out that door

and never come back.

So God was showing her the door of honesty

but I had not been a personwho could receive honesty

and therefore it led her tothink I couldn't forgive her.

And so that was really our breaking point

and so in the book wetalk about being desperate

and that's what put Lisa on the backyard

with her face down in thedirt, pleading to God.

That's what put me numb,sitting in my living room chair

thinking how did we get to this point.

We were both desperate and broken.

- Because you had knownabout the emotional affair

but you gave her a warning.

- That's right.

- And when you found it wasmore than just emotions involved

you kicked her out.

- I did, I said I don't want you here.

I don't know where we'regonna go with this.

I said but I don't wantthe girls going with you.

And so we were apart.

We were separated and I hada lot of people advise me.

'Cause she had had the emotional affair,

now an affair.

She's never gonna change.

You've gotta move on.

And a lot of people in mychurch were telling me that.

- Even though you werean associate pastor.

- Exactly.

- And supposed to be able to forgive,

you were struggling.

- Oh big time, big time.

- So what happened next?

- Well, at that point, whenever I,

and a I don't say this lightly

but I had a truth, I threw up the truth.

- We call it truth vomit.

- Yeah, I mean I really did.

I just vomited out everythingout that had gone on

since I was a little girl

and just told him everything.

I mean probably many thingshe didn't wanna know.

But at that point I had to get it out.

And whenever I did, I wasamazing what God did to me,

inside of me once I got that out.

Now you know at first I was empty

because I thought there'sno way we're gonna make it.

But I went out into the backyard

and I just said God I don'teven know if you're real.

I don't know if you hear me.

But at this point inmy life if you're real

would you please come and rescue me.

And what's amazing isthat I didn't have to

get all cleaned up or anything.

He came to me right there where I was.

- [Interviewer] Right there in the mud.

- That's exactly right.

- And your book is calledDesperate Forgiveness.

Allen, what is desperate forgiveness?

- Desperate forgivenessis getting to the place

where you've tried everything you can

to fix whatever yourrelationship issues are.

You're bitter, you're hurt,

maybe you're addicted to drugs,

you're trying to fillthis void with something.

And you get so desperate tilyou think there's no answer.

I don't know how to fix this.

At that point you can finally embrace

the forgiveness of God and then sometimes

you need to extendforgiveness to other people

to fix relationships.

Sometimes you have to ask for it

because you've beenneeding for someone to say

I love you, I forgive you.

That's where Lisa was.

She needed to know.

And so I just validatedwhat God had already

put in her heart andthat is we can forgive,

we can move forward.

- What are some stepsyou both recommend now

to people strugglingwith similar situations

who are struggling with forgiveness?

- Well first and foremostI would say start now.

That's exactly rightbecause I carried this

all through my childhood, my teenage years

into my marriage until I was 33 years old.

Before I allowed God toheal me of all the things

that had gone wrong.

- Because you were inlove with your husband

and the affair was just theroot of all these things

that had happened to you.

- The darkness that continuedto grow inside of me.

And at that point whenever Godjust took that away from me.

And He did take that away from me.

Now I had to do the work, you know.

And I had to study and I hadto go through counseling.

- [Interviewer] And he had to forgive.

- That's right.

- [Interviewer] And that's work.

And sometimes that doesn'thappen in an instant.

It's a daily decision to keep forgiving.

- You have to say the words

and you have to mean them.

When you have to saythe words and mean them.

I made a deal with God.

God, I know you forgive me.

I wanna forgive Lisa the same way.

And that means that I can't bring this up

every time we have an argument.

And we're 20 years removed now.

And I've held to that dealthat I made with the Almighty,

and you do that every day.

- Praise the Lord.

Well I read in your bookthat you now are more

happily married now that you've ever been.

You're older and wiser, not that old.

So happily married after all of this.

How can that be?

- We finally said a few years ago,

and it took a long time to say this,

that we would livethrough everything again.

As bad as it was.

Our young life, the affairs, all of it

to know that we couldget to where we've been

for the last 20 years.

That's how awesome andblessed our lives have been.

We have six grandchildren,we have two children.

They're living that same forgiveness

that they saw in us

and we're their spiritual heroes.

And that happens notbecause you're perfect,

but you're imperfect and willing to show

what God can do.

- I can't even imagine thehope that you are giving

some couple that's watching right now.

The book is called Desperate Forgiveness.

It's amazing how mercy sets you free.

And wow, thank you so muchfor telling your story

and being so real and raw.

You can also check out our Facebook page

to hear more from Allen and Lisa.

Just go to Facebook.com/700club

and what is it about you Robertson's?

You guys just keep bringing the books

and bringing these amazing stories

and God is using you guys so so much.

Even after the show is,I guess now in reruns?

- Yeah, for two years.

Because God built usa tremendous platform.

And He didn't mean forus to sit on our laurels

and say weren't thoseguys funny five years ago.

He's like I've got work for you to do.

And we feel like now we're doing it.

- And you know we wantto give other people

that same hope that we have.

And so to do that you have to share it.

You have to tell your story.

- [Interviewer] Youhave to open your mouth.

- That's right.