God Rescued Me from a Life I Didn’t Know I Could Leave

Welcome to “Faithful Warriors”, where women overcome trials and the storms in their lives through God’s presence, guidance, and strength.

God designed the family unit in the Garden of Eden and satan has been doing his best to tear them apart ever since. One tool he uses is by belittling women through bullying, abuse, and in their own thoughts and insecurities. That’s why I was delighted to invite Tricia to share her story here, and about her ministry.

I pray you glean much from her story. Tricia knows how to trust God through the pain and doubt and is full of insight and wisdom.

Title: God Rescued Me from a Life I Didn’t Know I Could Leave

By Tricia Amidon

I now know God was never surprised by any part of my story. Not by the choices I made, the years I stayed, or the damage that piled up along the way.

He saw it ALL – every bit! And, He stayed anyway. That is the part that still undoes me.

My Story

I grew up feeling like an outsider. In school, in my neighborhood, even in my own family, I carried a deep sense that I never was good enough nor quite fit in.

That wound of unworthiness followed me everywhere. By the time I was a young adult, I did whatever it took to feel accepted and loved – not because I was reckless, but because I was searching for something I had never been given: a sense of my own worth.

That search led me straight into relationships that confirmed what I already believed about myself. My first marriage ended after seven years of physical and emotional abuse. Even then, I almost didn’t leave. I believed I did not deserve anything better, and to me, leaving meant I failed.

I remarried, had children, and built a life that looked okay from the outside. But inside that home, I spent 25 years living under financial, emotional, and spiritual abuse and manipulation.

My children witnessed this, gaslighting, and narcissistic behavior directed at me  I stayed far longer than I should have, and the guilt of that still finds me some days.

My Discoveries

Looking back, I realize I had spent my whole life looking for love in people who were incapable of giving it.

I had a faith in God, but I had not yet learned to let Him be the source of the value and worth I was so desperate to find. That was the root of it all.

The change came soon after my stepfather unexpectedly passed away while I was on vacation. He had raised me since I was ten and was the closest thing to a father I ever knew.

None of it made sense to me. But in my grief, something shifted. God used that loss to open my eyes in a way nothing else ever had.

God clearly showed me what I was living inside, what my daughter was experiencing alongside me, and what I had been refusing to see. For the first time, I felt Him pressing me toward my pastor, toward honesty, toward a plan.

I filed for divorce in May of 2020.

My realization was that I had placed my stepfather in a role only God was meant to fill. I leaned on him for the strength, security, and validation that belong to God alone.

His loss put God back in His rightful place in my life. I didn’t blame myself, but knew God works all things together for good. He had a plan.

What God Did

Then God told me to move across the country. In the middle of a pandemic. With my daughter, and little certainty about what came next. I trusted Him with everything: a home, a job, a school, a church, and a community.

And He showed up in every single one of those areas, beyond what I had even thought to ask for.

After about a year in Montana, my daughter said to me, “Mom, the best thing you did for me was move me here.” Those words still bring me to tears. They confirmed that I had finally learned to trust the One who had been trying to lead me all along.

God revealed to me that staying in an unhealthy or abusive relationship is rarely about weakness, but rather an offshoot of a deep childhood wound. My false belief of self-worth was buried so deep I did not even know it was controlling my decisions. I believed I was getting what I was worth.

God doesn’t agree with that belief. And He is patient enough to keep working on you until you stop agreeing with it too.

God showed me He uses the hard things – the losses, the endings, and the forced pivots. They are not punishments. They are often the moments He uses to reposition you.

• I would not have moved to Montana without losing my stepfather.

• I would not have left without the pain becoming undeniable.

• I would not have found the community and purpose I now have without walking through it all.

Trust the process, even when you cannot see the point.

God took the hardest chapters of my life, taught me valuable lessons from it, and has turned it into a ministry.

I am a certified coach and the founder of Root and Bloom Coaching, where I walk alongside women who are healing from toxic relationships and rebuilding their lives. Through one-on-one coaching and the Root and Bloom Circle community, I help women find their voice again and take practical steps toward the life and plan God has for them.

I recently founded a nonprofit, Strength House. It provides real support and community to women walking the same path I tread. And this year, I am launching “Clearing the Way,” a series of half-day retreats for women who need space to breathe, reflect, and begin again.

Every word I write in my Breaking the Chains series and Increase series, reminds me of what God told me He would do with my story.

He is faithful. He sees you. And wherever you are in your own story, He is not done yet.

You can find Tricia at the following:

Her website: http://triciaamidon.com/

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tricia.a.amidon/

On Sub Stack: https://triciaamidon.substack.com/

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