Faith Stories with Naomi Reed   |   February 12th, 2020 04:31 PM

“I spent my childhood on an island in Vanuatu. We used to play on the beach. My local friends and I would make sandcastles and share our canoes and paw paws. But then one day, when I was nine, I was sent away to boarding school in Australia. It was an awful day. I remember standing on the jetty, and crying, clinging on to my parents. But they couldn’t do anything. They waved goodbye to me. It was the 1950s, so feelings weren’t expressed well then … which meant that for years afterwards, I thought I was sent away because I wasn’t good enough. Maybe if I tried harder, I could be better. And that’s what I tried to do for years. I spent a lot of my adult life trying to please my parents, and others. Until one day, I read Romans 8:1 – ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus …’ I read it over and over again. I cried. I couldn’t believe it. It was true – I wasn’t good enough for a holy God, but he had made me good enough through Jesus. It’s been the biggest part of my life, ever since. And I still cry whenever I read that verse.”