March 7, 2006

Free at last

By Teresa Wayne

I first heard about God as a small child when my mother took me to church. She wasn’t a Christian; she just took me to protect her reputation among her Christian friends. Much to my mother’s resentment, I discovered a wonderful relationship with God and began to study His Word. But that relationship would be greatly challenged.

Mom tried to kill Dad when I was 6. Dad forgot to make the bed. Mom grabbed a kitchen knife and ran at him with it. He locked himself in the bathroom. I watched, wailing, as Mom pounded on the door. Then she turned to me. “Shut up,” she said, “or you’ll be next.”

Dad crawled out the bathroom window and called the police. But when they came, he dropped the charges. I realized then that my mom could kill me if I ever triggered her temper. I grew up in fear.

We moved when I was 7, and in our new town a teenage boy sexually abused me throughout that year. Thankfully, my family moved again. I didn’t tell anyone about the abuse until I was in high school.

At 15, my aunt and uncle invited me to live with them. For the next several years I was in therapy. The trauma of my childhood had caused the same kind of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that soldiers get returning from battle. I didn’t get better.

But I was back in church. One Sunday I felt God leading me to go forward for prayer. I had a terrible fear of going in front of people, but I went. As the person at the altar prayed for me, my tears began to fall like rain in the midst of drought. By the time I returned to my seat, I knew something in me was different.

God had set me free from the bondage to my past that had held me captive for so long. I was free at last! Since that night, God has filled me with a sense of joy and peace unlike anything I have ever known before.

So, the next time you’re struggling with one of life’s sorrows, remember me and be encouraged that God can bring anyone through anything.

Teresa Wayne* lives in the Midwest and enjoys serving God with her writing.

*Name has been changed. Testimony endorsed by the writer’s pastor.