When things get rough, some people turn to prayer, while some go astray and rely on drugs. Anneshia Freeman was one of those people who lost their way but eventually found their way back to God.
Life has been difficult for Freeman ever since she was a young girl. She had an absentee father and a mother with paranoid schizophrenia. Her faith was introduced in a wrong way by her mother who was suffering from a mental disorder.
"I had a personal relationship with God, but it was distorted. I had asked God to come into my heart when I was seven or eight. I told my mom and I was so happy, but she was a religious fanatic. She operated out of a legalistic concept of God. It was a conditional relationship, and I had to be perfect. By the time I became an adolescent, I was like, 'Why even try?'" Freeman recalled, as quoted by The Christian Broadcasting Network.
When she went to high school, Freeman's life further went wayward. She discovered drugs and alcohol and basically abandoned her education. Upon graduation, things continued to go downhill.
"I was living in Chicago when my addiction kicked into high gear. I had been smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, and occasionally snorting cocaine. I stopped paying bills. All of my money started going towards cocaine," she recalled.
For 12 years, she lived on the streets, where she became a victim of sexual abuse. One day, when the pain felt already intolerable, she decided to commit suicide in a bus station. What happened next, however, changed her life forever.
"I had a made-up mind, and I was timing my leap into the street. A gentleman walked up behind me and stopped and said, 'Don't you dare give up.' I believe that man was an angel. I don't know if he was or if he was just somebody used right then in that point, because I was getting ready to leave here," Freeman recalled
"I was like, wow! You mean, there's a God out there that cared whether or not a prostitute and crack addict is getting ready to take her life and He would speak to me through somebody who didn't know me and didn't know what I was about to do?" she continued.
Ever since that incident, Freeman turned her life around. She has now completed three degrees, regularly goes to Church, and continues to grow in faith in God.
