My girlfriend betrayed my trust recently. I'm not really sure how to define what she did, how I should feel about it, or how to move forward. Really hurting and in need of some Christian advice.

As the title says, my girlfriend of about one year betrayed my trust recently. We have both always considered this a serious, long term relationship. We are both in our early 20s. I'm coming here for advice because we are both Christians and I generally find this places advice more useful than r/relationships.

About 2 months ago, she left for a 2 month professional opportunity. We were sad that we would have to be in a long distance relationship for a bit but were confident we would be fine. And things were fine for the first few weeks. We call fairly frequently and even write each other a couple letters. However, about a month in, I sensed that something isn't quite right.

She had seemed more distant on the phone calls. It was hard to explain why, but I just knew something was off. About a week and a half ago, I confronted her about this. Her response was that sometimes she intentionally didn't tell me things she was thinking because she was afraid to hurt my feelings. I asked her to tell me what she had been hiding.

It turns out that while she had been at this place, she might a guy who was there for the same opportunity. She said that she had developed a bit of a crush on him. Now I understand that occasionally small crushes can happen even within relationships. But she handled things poorly, to say the least.

Instead of trying to keep things cool there, she confessed that she may have started to shut me out a bit in a favor of this new crush. I don't entirely know what she meant by shutting me out (whether it was conscious or subconscious), but that explains what I had been sending on the phone. I also don't quite know the extent of this "shut out" because we still had some very enjoyable conversations in this period and there were still times where she seemed to genuinely show love towards me. But she told me that she had had some doubts about us, which again, I understand is normal on occasion. I don't know whether the doubts fostered her feelings towards this guy or the other way around.

She has told me that she never acted on these feelings for him. I do honestly believe her, but there are some things that make me uncomfortable. It was no secret over the course of this LDR that there was a guy (this guy) who she suspected had feelings for her, despite him also having an SO back home. She told me this early on. She went out drinking at a bar with a group of her friends most nights. I have no doubts that this guy was a part of this group and was there drinking with her. That makes me so uncomfortable. She said that she had been feeling guilty, so she asked her mom and another close male friend of hers for advice (side note: this male friend once had very strong feelings for her, but she never was interested). I don't understand why neither of them advised her to be honest with me about what was happening. I don't know how she could feel guilty but seemingly carry on with what was happening.

Well, the guys program finished early, so he left and she's still there. This was about the time she finally told me everything. We ended the call and I thought very hard for a few hours. I finally condensed my thoughts into an email and sent it to her. In it explained exactly how I felt she had hurt and betrayed me and our relationship. She immediately felt terribly for everything. Over the past week and half she has sent me a text every day that talks about how something wrong she's realized done or some positive confessions of things she's felt in our relationship. I believe she no longer has doubts about our relationship. She's also told me that she's surprised I'm still able to love her after this. I believe she is legitimately sorry and has realized her mistake.

I don't know entirely where I stand right now. I briefly considered breaking up with her. But then I realized that I still loved her far too much to be able to do this. We had such a great relationship before she left and I simply don't understand how she could let this happen. But I know I want is to work through this together. She seems to want the same. It's weird, I used to tell myself that if I was ever cheated on, I would end my relationship immediately. But what she did isn't exactly cheating. How can I define what she did? I still feel really betrayed. A part of me feels like we're both making a bigger deal out of this than what it actually is. I don't know.

In a few days we will be reuniting. I was so excited that it would be a happy reunion. Now I'm really nervous. She knows that we have to talk about this, but I've also told her that I still love her and really want our relationship to continue. But I simply don't know how I'll be able to forgive her or how to rebuild trust again.

Are we making too big of a deal out of this? Are my feelings justified? Or am I crazy for still loving her and wanting to work things out? How we can we move past this and build a stronger relationship? I'm so confused and hurting right now and would really appreciate any advice right now.