LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: It's 93.7 WDJC

with Roxanne and Chris.

Good morning.

It is so good to have you with us.

NARRATOR: Spend a few moments with Lisa Roxanne Richardson

and you'd think she had the perfect childhood.

She says, yamo.

I think that's cool.

She has her own made-up words for things.

NARRATOR: But nothing could be further from the truth.

LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: My dad had some mental illness

that went unmedicated for quite a long period of time.

We experienced some physical abuse.

He would go from being the most fun-loving, super terrific dad

into a violent person that you didn't want to be around.

NARRATOR: After an extremely bad incident when she was 19,

Lisa finally sought help.

LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: I was told that he was highly abusive

and he needed to go directly to jail.

And I was afraid of him going to jail.

I was afraid of how that would impact our family,

and I didn't want to be the one that caused that situation

to happen.

NARRATOR: Instead, Lisa escaped to college.

She landed a radio job right out of school

and started her career.

LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: I always

knew that something was missing.

I thought, well, I'm going to fill

this emptiness that I have.

This feeling of shame and guilt. This

feeling that I don't measure up.

I'm going to fill that longing with people.

And so then I became like a man collector.

I would collect men and when I didn't like them,

I would toss them out.

NARRATOR: Even marriage offered Lisa no fulfillment.

LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: I had a beautiful ring,

but felt so lonely.

More lonely than when I was single.

It felt like a constant gnawing to be complete,

to feel good about myself, to belong to someone.

NARRATOR: Her career was the only thing

that seemed to be going well.

LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: I had moved

across the country in radio and found

out there was a rock and roll radio

station at Birmingham, Alabama that needed

a Roxanne in the morning.

I was a big city girl with big city ideas.

Getting to interview, I mean, oh my goodness.

Presidents travelling in a presidential motorcade,

do some exciting interviews backstage with major artists,

just really having a ball with my career.

I had a beautiful baby girl.

I had a gorgeous house.

Just really what people would look

at as a very successful life.

But my marriage had its struggles.

I had my issues with my parents.

Real abandonment issues with them.

They would come and go out of my life.

And I had that, again, a gnawing that there

had to be something more.

There has to be something more.

I'm lonely.

NARRATOR: Then Lisa met Chris, a coworker with something

different.

LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: I knew he was a devout Christian.

I knew that.

So I thought, well, at one point he's really

going to try to judge me.

And we're going to hear a speech,

and it may be a speech that I don't really care for.

Well, he didn't do that.

He was simply really fun to be around.

And I thought, there's something so special about him.

This is a guy who is just really,

really in love with his wife and would share funny stories

about his family.

There's something different about him.

You wanted whatever he had.

I wasn't raised in church-- didn't go to church.

So why I would pray in the bathroom, I have no idea,

but that's where I went to pray.

I just said, Lord.

Lord, if you are real-- if there really is a God

and you're there, you're going to have to show me.

I am empty inside.

I am lonely.

Something's wrong with me.

My little girl's three and a half, I would say.

Going on four, maybe.

Somewhere in that time frame.

She had been playing in the lower floor of our home.

And I walked into the kitchen and sat down.

She came up and she put her hand on my knee and she said,

you're not alone, mama.

And I said, what are you talking about?

And she said, God loves you.

I said, who told you to say that?

How do you know that?

And she looked at me and she said, God put it in my head.

I'm at the table.

I mean, it's like the room is spinning.

What do I do now?

Because I asked God to talk to me and He did almost instantly.

And then I'm thinking, who do I tell?

I thought, Chris Molesky.

He goes to church.

So I called him and I said, Chris

does God speak to people through little children?

Because I think God just tried to talk to me through Hannah.

And he said, Lisa, if God can talk to people

through a donkey or a burning bush,

yes he can talk to people through children.

He said, God just spoke to you.

He has things he wants to do with you in your life,

and you need to come to church with me and Megan.

I said, OK.

All right then.

I guess I'm going to church.

I loved church.

I loved it from day one.

It just felt peaceful.

You know, when you don't believe you don't feel much peace.

I didn't.

I always felt like I was striving and trying

all the time.

And it was peaceful.

NARRATOR: Lisa fell madly in love with Jesus

and that gnawing emptiness was finally filled.

LISA ROXANNE RICHARDSON: When I found out

what being saved meant-- simply accepting

the Lord as my Savior, telling him I

no longer want to be in control of my life,

I turn that over to you-- what a relief.

I'm turning away from the things that I used to do

and the person that I was, and I'm putting you in control.

After everything I experienced, he washed me white as snow.

I'm his modern-day Esther that he's

using to speak to audiences every time

this microphone's on.

I get to be pastoral care for people.

What an honor.

People had similar experiences to mine.

They could identify with it.

Walking in a load of darkness and loneliness

and wondering why your life isn't complete.

That there has to be more.

No matter how dark it seems, no matter what you've done,

no matter where you have been, there is a God who loves you.

Loves you enough to send his son to die for you on a cross.