Testimonies

Stories of Healing & Transformation

Healing happens in community, and testimonies are a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness.

This page is dedicated to sharing real stories from real people who have experienced growth, breakthrough, and healing through the journey of Broken to Blessed. Whether you’ve found peace in surrender, freedom from the past, or a deeper connection with God, your testimony can inspire and encourage others walking a similar path.

Have a story to share? We would love to hear how this book has impacted your life!

💬 Submit your testimony and let your journey be a light to someone else.

Author’s Testimony – A Journey from Broken to Blessed

From the moment I could speak, I did not want to be part of this world. Confusion and pain filled my life from the very beginning. I was born into brokenness, experiencing mistreatment, abandonment, and deep suffering as a child. My earliest years were marked by a desperate need for love, safety, and understanding, but instead, I was met with pain, neglect, and trauma.

Placed in foster care with my younger sister after something vile and unspeakable had happened to me, I thought I might finally be safe. But even in the care of the state, the very thing that had shattered me before happened again. It reinforced what I had already believed, that I was alone, unheard, misplaced, and without worth. The weight of that agony crushed me. I hurt so badly inside that I harmed myself in mind, body, and spirit. I was drowning in pain. Despite everything, I never wished harm upon others. Instead, I worked tirelessly to be perfect (whatever that meant). I pushed myself to love, to give, to be selfless (later realizing that much of this was driven by deep-rooted co-dependency and an aching desire to prove that good still existed), even when I couldn’t see it in my own life.

Throughout my childhood, I was in and out of AA rooms, surrounded by the language of recovery and the foundation of the 12 steps. Though I didn’t fully understand it at the time, those meetings engrained in me the principles of accountability, surrender, and transformation.

As I entered my mid-teen years, my life became a mess of terrible mistakes. Disaster after disaster followed me, some from my own reckless choices, others simply from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was taken advantage of, manipulated, and abused by multiple people, including those who claimed to be my friends. I was lost, with little guidance, and running became my way of life. It was all I knew how to do.

Then came a defining moment. I had been experimenting with drugs, playing with fire that had already burned my family. But one night, coming out of a high, staring at the ceiling, I had to make a major decision. At that moment, I asked myself a question I already knew the answer to: Is this really the road I want to take? I had seen firsthand where addiction led. I had watched my parents battle those demons. I had spent years sitting in AA meetings, hearing stories of rock bottom, destruction, and redemption. And as I lay there, I knew, if I didn’t stop now, I would go down a path I may never come back from. That morning, I went home and chose not to take that path. I was one step away from the world of addiction, but God had already planted seeds of wisdom in my heart. The foundation of the steps had been there all along, guiding me toward a different choice, a different life.

At 18 my son was born. He became my reason to fight, to live, to believe in something greater than myself. I still hurt so deeply inside, but for the first time, I had something to live for. I vowed that he would never experience the life I had lived, never feel the emptiness, abandonment, and confusion that had nearly destroyed me. Even though I had shut God out completely, I wanted my son to know that maybe there was a God. So I took him to church, even when I sat in confusion, unsure of what I believed, I still wanted him to have the freedom to choose for himself.

Throughout my twenties, I sought to live with integrity, treating people with kindness, compassion, and respect, even though I still didn’t understand why life was so cruel. My heart was good, but my depression was still at its highest. I longed for answers, for peace, for an end to the constant battle within me. Why were people the way they were? Why did life feel so impossible? I still had no answers.

Though my morals straightened out over time, I was still running as I was taught to do so. I didn’t know how to stop and face myself, to confront the wounds that had controlled me for so long.

In my thirties, I began attending more and more meetings with my family and got involved as a community service provider. That’s where I met people who truly lived for God. At first, I resisted. I had spent years shutting Him out, pretending He didn’t exist, but these people had something I didn’t. Peace. Purpose. Freedom. Their faith planted a seed I didn’t even know was taking root. Day by day, that seed grew, until one day, I couldn’t deny it anymore. Something had shifted inside me. God had been pursuing me all along, and I was finally ready to listen. The moment I stepped fully into my faith, everything changed. The misery, the emptiness, the confusion that had defined my entire life no longer controlled me. For the first time, I knew I was loved, I was seen, and I was never alone.

Now, I wake up every morning knowing I am blessed. I see God working in my life every day. The brokenness, the suffering, the years of pain, they did not break me. God restored me. And I am forever thankful. I won’t lie, I’m still not perfect. I still have days where I take my will back instead of surrendering to God. But I have learned that perfection is not required for faith. What matters is the effort, the surrender, the willingness to grow.

The steps I have outlined in this book are not just words, they are the very steps that led me to healing, to faith, to true freedom. For so long, I searched for peace in all the wrong places. I ran from the pain instead of facing it. But when I surrendered, when I walked through these steps with honesty and faith, I discovered what had been missing all along, God’s love and His healing power.

If there’s one thing I know, it’s this: God’s grace is bigger than anything we have been through. And within these steps, within this journey, you will find the blessing of freedom that can only come from Him.