My Testimony

I just wanted to share my testimony with you. Below is article that was in

Shattered Magazine:

“A Way Out – Mary’s Story” 

Shared by Mary Priddy

Written by Emily Rogers

"Love conquers all," Mary says looking towards me as she squints to keep the sun out of her eyes. She smiled, shrugged, and continued, "That's it. Love conquers all." Mary Priddy's journey is an emotional story that shows the power of Christ in every way. Her countless times escaping what seemed to be inevitable death, swirl around her mind as faint yet still vivid memories - coming and going, from clarity to confusion. Speaking with her as she unloads years of struggle and pain - you'd never know those dark years exist. She sits, smiles, and calmly breathes. She shares graphic details and startling memories with a rhythmic pace and warm hum to her voice, a peace that can only be found in Christ. As she prepares to move into her first apartment with her two daughters, she can typically be found working at the local hospital, hanging out at the house where she and her family currently reside, or attending her home church. She is a woman of endless joy who has faced extreme sorrow and yearns to make her story known. "Even if this just helps one person. That's enough. That's worth it." Mary explains. Eagerness in her tone, humility in her spirit - it's time to share Mary's story....

- - - The early part of Mary's life was rich with family and love. Growing up attending church with her brothers and grandparents, Mary learned how to be a disciplined Christ follower at a young age. She was very close to her grandparents. Her grandfather, who was a preacher, exhibited genuine care and concern for his family and church body. Her grandparents served an important role in Mary's life. They showed her a faithful marriage, the constant acceptance of a loving Father, and the honoring routine of diligent believers. Mary re-calls singing hymns on the way to church in the car with her grandparents. They'd sing together on the way to church and sing together on the way home. Sometimes just out of habit - sometimes out of praise. Those hymns, the same ones she sang with her family on that simple country road, she'd one day be singing alone. Drugged, violated, and abandoned, Mary would sing the same hymns to comfort herself years later on an urban street as she looked for the night's work... At the age of 12, Mary's life took an unexpected turn. As an unruly cry for help and attention after the devastating death of her grandfather, Mary took to self-harm to manipulatively extract herself from her home environment. Her family had not coped with the death of her grandfather easily and every comfort she knew was falling to pieces around her. She wanted out. So she decided she'd do just that - get out. After an intentionally superficial cut to her forearm and a call to 911, Mary was placed in the state public care system of Tennessee. 

First, she was sent to a psychiatric hospital to be evaluated for potential danger and various health issues. Mary recalls being in the hospital, isolated from the world, wondering what her life would look like one day. On one occasion, her grandmother came to visit her. Hoping to see the lively granddaughter she once knew, her grandmother visited a shell of the Mary she desired to bring home. Drooling and dazed, Mary and her grandmother "visited" for several hours. While there, one of the doctors flippantly stated that Mary would be institutionalized forever. "I'll never forget that." Mary sighed, "They had decided I'd never be normal." She was diagnosed, re-diagnosed, and ultimately misdiagnosed for years. Schizophrenic episodes, anorexia, borderline personality disorder, obsessive behavior, depression...the list goes on. Label after label was placed on Mary. Her constant medication kept her in a state of oblivion as she waited to be released from the facility. After some bouts of better behavior and taking strides towards a healthier lifestyle, Mary was released into the foster program. 

Once cleared from the psychiatric hospital, she spent multiple years in and out of homes - grasping and living for a quickly fading hope of what life was "supposed" to be. Mary claimed she caught on very quickly how to begin working the system and continued to move from home to home. From the ages of 12-15, Mary lived in 34 different care facilities, foster homes, and group living environments. She witnessed parents who tried to love her the way she'd desired, she saw caretakers who simply wanted the check from the state, and she experienced families who did nothing more than shelter and feed her. Rejected, Mary was seeking acceptance and love. One night, Mary and her friend ran away from a treatment center they were assigned to. Her friend, who Mary recalls "knew what she was up to" pulled Mary into a mature situation with two older boys. With her friend just around the corner, voluntarily engaging in the same act - Mary, who was then a virgin, was raped at the age of 15 in an abandoned storage shed. The years that followed this night never managed to get any better.

 While Mary was reconnected somewhat with family after her grandmother came to pick her up from the hotel she’d escaped to, she started to hang out with a rough group of teenagers. These teens accepted her for her - or so she thought. What started as seemingly innocent partying, dancing, and drinking, rapidly turned into experimenting with drugs and promiscuity. Mary's brother was unexpectedly killed in a car crash after a night of drinking. And after an inability to cope in a healthy way, Mary's world continued crumbling. Long nights with multiple men using her for her body, being pimped out for money by a man she believed actually cared for her, and throwing herself recklessly into the numbness of ecstasy...She began escorting and working in sex spas to make the money necessary to buy drugs. Cocaine, crystal meth, and ecstasy filled Mary's body and veins, threatening her life with each use. Her mind was full of voices telling her lies, ridiculing, and laughing at her. The drugs opened a door to evil that Mary wished she'd never known. A constant heckling in her mind kept her searching for drugs to silence the voices. Deep into her dependency Mary remembers feeling trapped. She knew the drugs were the lord of her life, she knew she was hurting those who loved her, but she could not stop in her own will. She had given in to the addiction and lived only for the next high. Life was slipping away from Mary and with each hit, she succumbed further and further into the darkness that surrounded her. Mary was drugged, alone, and stoically longing for death. A way out. Whatever it might be. 

Then, suddenly, when desiring death - life was gifted to Mary in the form of her first daughter, Faith. Once Mary found out she was pregnant, she miraculously kicked the drugs and lifestyle she inhabited. Relying on her faith in God that He had a greater plan for her, she fled from the addiction that controlled her and began taking care of her body as she carried this child. Awakened by the innocence that comes with the birth of a baby, Mary had her daughter and stayed clean for about nine months after Faith was born. With no support system and a dwindling dependence on Christ, Mary was not strong enough to resist the acquaintances from her past. The voices began to speak again - unworthiness, hate, and depression. After just one night of going out partying, Mary was back where she left off. After this slip, Faith spent most of her days in the care of Mary's mother while Mary kept on, spiraling out of control. At a pivotal moment in her life - after several stays in jail, multiple visits to the hospital, numerous attempts at suicide, and too many vague nights with paying customers trailing her conscious - Mary woke up on the floor of a crack house. She remembers that morning, lying there, surrounded by piles of filthy, chemically saturated, and inebriated bodies. Fellow drug seekers sleeping off the drugs. She had been in this situation before - used up, searching, hungry, tired, and dirty. But this time, it was different. This time she awoke almost involuntarily begging and crying out to God. She was begging for a way out. She remembers praying "God - show me the way out and I'll take it. I am ready." 

That morning, she went to the local homeless shelter for food. It was Good Friday and she was searching for the way out she’d begged for. She lingered around the shelter for a few days until that Sunday, Easter Sunday. Considering the Christian holiday, a bus was scheduled to take the people of the shelter to church. It wasn't mandatory that they go, but Mary figured, "Why not?" Oddly enough, the bus didn't come that day. She decided that she'd stay, but realized she probably wasn't going to be visiting a church that morning. Continuing her talk with God that started days ago on the floor of the home several blocks away, Mary waited for Him to show her the way she had begged for. As she paced the grounds of the shelter, the personnel working there called another church, who they knew had buses, to come get those interested in going. The buses came and Mary hopped on. That morning, at a welcoming and accepting church, Mary re-dedicated her heart, life, and soul to Jesus Christ. "That was it for me. I knew it. I was home," Mary says with the tiniest of tears filling up her vibrant eyes. She recalls being prayed over by several of the pastors at the church as one of the sweetest and most terrifying experiences of her life. As the prayers began, the laughter and hateful voices that had filled her mind for decades began to build. Loudly laughing, bellowing up from deep within, the laughter increased - Mary gripped hands of believers, bent her head down, and prayed silently as the pastors battled and pleaded with God on her behalf. Then finally, for the first time ever - the voices that had plagued Mary - fell completely silent. Forever. Still, quiet, peace filled Mary and she knew it was over. "He chased me down and HE won," she exclaims. - - -

 It hasn’t been all “happily-ever-after” from here...does God ever promise us that? No, but he does promise us that HE is with us forever after. After this experience, Mary has had small triumphs as she began to mend the broken pieces of her life. She picked up a job, returned to a family that still wanted what was best for her, began mothering her daughter well, and even completed schooling to become a Medical Assistant. Her grandmother and mother happily and helpfully welcome her back into their lives and have supported her with each healing step she’s taken to grow and change. They’ve assisted her in transitioning to become the primary provider for her children. With each victory, Mary was pushing further and further back at the struggle and strife she was once help captive by. Mary even attended a mission trip. Who knew? A former prostitute on a mission trip to bring glory to the one, true God! Now that is redemption.

 There have been many pitfalls along Mary’s path, and plenty of lingering poor choices, but each time, the Lord has been gracious to her and kept her close. With the birth of a beautiful daughter Grace about a year and half ago, Mary experienced what she feels is another chance – a chance to love on her girls and be the mom she knows she can be. She has shared with Faith about her drug addiction, teaches her about the Lord, and loves her daughters endlessly. Full of matchless hope as she witnesses God's redemptive work in her own life, Mary says "You learn to have thick skin, but a tender heart. I've been made tough by what I've gone through. But my heart is softened by our great God." - - - Mary's story is unbelievable. Really. In this world - science, facts, the news, tabloids, and history tells us the way these stories end. Addiction wins, redemption is not possible, and that once you go so far - you can never come back. However, Christ’s story for our lives is different. Just as He rescued Mary, He can and will rescue us. A crazy concoction of sin and helplessness leads to a victorious display of His greatness and love. God came down to this earth in the form of a baby just to redeem, restore, and LOVE his creation. 

God chased Mary down and met her. He is restoring her, redeeming her, and loving her each day. When asked what she wanted people to walk away from her story with, Mary passionately replied, "You are never too messed up. It's never too late. God is always there for you and He always will be," she paused and looked around, searching for the perfect words to say. Resolving her search, she smiled and said, "You just have to ask Him for a way out."
Be Blessed!!