The word “free” is music to my ears. Every time I say it, I can feel freedom flowing from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Each time I sign “free indeed” inside another copy of my business memoir, Twist of Faith, I breathe a prayer of thanks. And I smile.

But it hasn’t always been this easy. There was a time in my life when I hated who I had become. I thought I’d crossed the line where God could no longer offer me grace.

I was drowning in an ocean of pain, blame, and shame, and no one realized how I was feeling inside. My guilt overwhelmed me and I was left with a burden too heavy to bear. I thought God was through with me—but I was wrong.

Psalm 40:1-3 is my testimony: God turned to me, heard my cry for help, and then came to my rescue. And in the midst of all my pain, He created a purpose for me—one of which I never could have dreamed.

In 1988, my husband, Jonas, and I started Auntie Anne’s Soft Pretzels so we could afford to do something else—open a counseling center. See, we’d experienced a lot of healing in our marriage and wanted to share with others the valuable guidance that got us through our crisis.

What we didn’t expect was that Auntie Anne’s would be such a huge success.

During the seventeen years I owned the company, we built over eight hundred locations worldwide. Those were fun, exciting times. Growing the company helped me grow emotionally, spiritually and professionally. It also changed the lives of many of our employees in a big way—for the good—and I am so happy to have been a part of that.

But despite all my success, I was hurting inside, living with secrets I was too afraid to tell.

My “free indeed” came when I brought my secrets into the open where they needed to be. It was the principle of confession, “one to another,” that took me out of the darkness and into a place of marvelous light.

As I began to practice James 5:16 (Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.), I experienced overcoming power. The days of darkness and depression faded away.

I never could have imagined the life I live today—a life that exists because of God’s love and mercy.

When our journey with Auntie Anne’s came to an end, it was a bittersweet time. The company had become our life; the franchisees were our family. But I had learned by then that the seasons in our journey come and go, and sometimes you have to put down what you’ve got in order to take hold of the next thing God has for you.

God began His work of redemption in my life some time ago, but it is a work that continues—from a life of sin to God’s rescue; from the hope of a dream to the reality of a thriving ministry and a worldwide pretzel company.

To this day, He is still restoring to me all of the things the enemy stole: years of marriage, my relationships with my children, my happiness, freedom.

I would never have guessed in a million years that I’d be where I am now. But that’s what happens when you serve a God of second chances.

Let me close with a few words from Twist of Faith that describe my feelings to this day:

“Thinking back on my life, the twists and turns it’s taken, I feel truly amazed that I am whole. Sometimes even now I cannot believe how high the highs were, or how low the lows. Emotionally, I went to the very brink of hell and back…yet somehow I am now thrilled to live this life, feeling that each day is one to be enjoyed. God’s grace and forgiveness got me through it all…”

“Jesus heard my cry for help, and in the midst of all my pain He created a purpose for me—one of which I could never have dreamed.”

This article originally appeared in the Enjoying Everyday Life magazine.