Healing Hope Newsletter
February 2010
Harriet was three years old when her father died in an auto accident. “Mom and Grandma kept saying that he was ‘dead’, but I had absolutely no idea what that word meant. Every evening for two weeks, I kept watch by the window for my daddy to come home.” When her hopes faded, she lapsed into a grief so intense that it even slowed down her physical growth.
“I felt so abandoned—not only by my father, but by my mom, too. She was forced to work long hours to keep our family going. My grandmother did move in to care for my two siblings and I.” But Harriet continued to blame herself for the fact that her dad left. “Deep down, I felt that if I’d just been a better girl, he’d have come home.” She says that Jesus brought her comfort several times. “But I had no idea it was Him.”
Those feelings of abandonment followed her into adulthood, greatly affecting her personal development and marriage. “Six years into my marriage, my husband was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I ran to Jesus for help. To my delight, He introduced me to my Heavenly Father.”
Harriet says she never realized how her dad’s death permeated her until the Lord began untangling the web of brokenness and lies. She felt, for example, that her sins and imperfections had caused her father not to come home. She imagined they caused her husband, Bill, to be violent when he drank. She even wondered if her failings caused his disease.
Gently and gradually, God began to heal the damage her father’s death had caused. She learned that God is greater than the greatest pain we can suffer. “His healing grace has enabled me to move forward in power.”
Immediately after Bill’s diagnosis, Harriet had surrendered to Jesus Christ. ‘I seldom began my day without reading my Bible, praying and listening as the Holy Spirit whispered inspiration. He also used people, mainly my local church, to bring encouragement and cheer. I became so strong and confident that I was able to nurse my husband for thirty years.”
Bill didn’t surrender to Christ until twenty-seven years after his diagnosis. “Bill made unprovoked statements of repentance. ‘You know those times I when I got drunk and beat you? I’m so sorry.’“ Harriet knows that God used M.S. for the salvation of their entire family. It was an amazing display of the power of God to destroy evil and preserve good.” Bill became the most enthusiastic member of their church. He died in 2006.
“Today I live solely to serve the One who healed my broken heart and opened the doors to my Heavenly Father’s love.” Now, Harriet says, God has called her to write about Him. “Initially, the very thought frightened me. But He hasn’t abandoned me to the task.
She is at rest, now, she says, because her Abba Daddy is at home.
Blessings,
Marion Duckworth
http://www.marionduckworthministries.com
http://www.healinghopeonline.com
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