Second Chances: personal narrative by Vicki Smith

image by valter, on Pixabay, slightly modified

Second Chances

Really, I don’t deserve His goodness and mercy. For all my times of rebelliousness and disobedience, He should just let me bear the consequences of my mistakes. But He doesn’t.

At this point, I am experiencing love and forgiveness according to His mercy and grace.

I am embarrassed to say, I feel like a spoiled, only child. Why does He love me so? I don’t

deserve it, but He blesses me anyway. He turns my oops into manageable do-overs, and

I can still live for His glory. For most of my life, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t

hurt people on purpose; on the contrary, I loved my kids too much and didn’t know my actions were hurting them.

Life is hard. There are good moments, beautiful scenes, and special times of fellowship with friends. But, a lot of the time, it’s hard. I seriously thought life was supposed to be a series of rose garden experiences. This caused me and others in my life untold anguish and anxiety. By the time I figured out what it was all about, it was too late. My children were grown and gone, wrapped in the pain I had caused them.

God’s love and His grace are beyond our finite, human understanding—nothing like our ability to love and forgive. It is divine. Do we understand God? Do we know our Father? Have we studied His ways and our own in comparison? Then maybe we have an inkling of what His love is like. Do you know an earthly father who would send his own son to death

in order to save his other children?

Most people don’t understand God. They think He is cruel and selfish. But God showed how much He loves us when He sent Jesus to die on the earth. (See Romans 5:8) He wants us to be with Him. His love is fierce. “Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it” (from Song of Solomon 8:7). He will do anything to keep us.

I have come into the last years of my life and have found that the Lord brings opportunities so that I can make different choices. He is so good. He gives me second chances. It says in Joel 2:25, “For I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” For so many years I was ravaged by that army of locusts that destroyed every good thing in my life. But the Lord has restored everything that was taken from me, and I am eager to meet Him without regrets or sorrow.

Vicki Smith has been writing for about three years. She writes from a Christian perspective which offers her readers hope and encouragement.                        

December 2025 issue