AMAZING STORY
Singer Wakes Up to New Life After Husband Dies in Accident
By Christine McWhorter
The 700 Club
CBN.com -As a relative newcomer to Christian music, Brandy Allison is already making waves. Her second single, Walking on Faith reached number 9 on the Christian charts. As a Christian artist, she loves sharing her faith through music. But there was a time she sang for a different reason.
“When I got on stage, every bad thing, everything that was on my mind, disappeared. I went into the song and I became somebody else,” said Brandy.
That’s because for much of her life Brandy felt liked she didn’t belong. “Nobody liked me. And there were times that I thought, ‘if my mom and dad were not my mom and dad, they wouldn’t even like me.’ Depression started setting in; a lot of mood swings.”
To fit in she started using drugs. That only made things worse. “I would look in the mirror, I wasn’t pretty anymore. It was pure negativity. My attitude was probably the worst thing. I was hateful. And the thing is, you’re hateful to the people who love you the most. That was my mother and father.”
At 17, she moved out, and began dating an old friend named Josh. She felt she finally found someone who accepted her for who she was. “He was an amazing man. He had a heart - I mean he had the best heart in the world.”
The couple married. Brandy got a job at a cotton mill, while Josh hauled cattle in an 18-wheeler. His was an overnight job and sometimes she rode with him. But he was using drugs just to make it through the night.
“I would do it with him. It was just to stay awake at first, but then we became dependent on it. It was every day,” said Brandy.
Still the two were very much in love and trying to make the best of life. Then, Josh had a terrible accident. “I get to the crash site and his motorcycle is in a million pieces. There’s no motorcycle left. Even though I‘d seen all that, he was not going to die. That didn’t even cross my mind.”
At the hospital, Brandy was taken to a private waiting room where she received news about her husband. “The doctors walked in and told me he was gone. He didn’t make it.”
Since childhood, Brandy had known about the God who saves. Now a widow at 27 years old, she reached out to Him. “If I’m going to live through this, and survive through this, I have got to have something that I haven’t had. And that’s Jesus.”
It was there, in a hospital waiting room that she gave her life to Christ. “I said, ‘okay You’ve got my attention. Here I am. I need You. I can’t do this.”
“I’ll never forget the next morning. I had just lost my husband, but I woke up with peace that my body had never felt before. I was just determined when I woke up, I’m done. I’m straightening my life up.”
Brandy says with God’s help, she stopped using the drugs. He also helped her heal from the pain of losing her husband.
“He didn’t turn my bitter heart sweet overnight, and I struggled with it. I couldn’t understand why. ‘Why would you do this to me? Why would you do this to him?’ God put me at peace with those questions. He always does.”
Through reading the Bible, over time she started seeing herself as God sees her.
“You have to surround yourself with positivity. You have to fill your body with the Word. There’s nothing about God that’s negative. He loves everybody.”
Soon she rediscovered her love for singing and now writes and records songs that share her journey of faith. She’s also taken up acting, and recently starred in her first film, a Christian movie called Virtuous.
Throughout her journey, Brandy says she has learned that true acceptance comes from Jesus.
“Your past mistakes and failures, they don’t define who you are. That is not what God intends for us. He’s given us life, eternal life. And all we have to do is believe and love Him.”
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
