Naked on God's Doorstep
A Memoir
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
“Finally, I knelt by my bed, risking rejection by the One who counted most.…”
Marion Duckworth was young when her mentally ill father was institutionalized. In her child’s mind she concluded, Daddy decided to leave me. Growing up in poverty as “Crazy Izzie’s daughter,” Marion believed she was someone worth abandoning.
It would be years before Marion realized that her Father God would never stop caring for her. As she writes, “God’s love healed the wounds created by abandonment. All through the pain, He created golden moments in my plain book of days–signs that He is my very own Father.”
Naked on God’s Doorstep is the story of life in a Coney Island tenement, a cockroach-infested Manhattan apartment, and an apartment above a tavern. It’s the story of pennies saved in sewing machine drawers, of a startling midnight on the beach, and of a many-windowed living room where miracles happened. It’s a story of longing to be safe someday.
It’s a story of hope.
Marion weaves her own story of her redemption with the stories of others, sharing practical helps as well. The result is a journey of healing that guides us all in transforming pain from the past into something beautiful.
This story is for anyone who needs to know that God will never leave.…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Duckworth's winsome story of her life will draw readers eager to work through their own struggles. Her father was committed to a mental institution when she was a child, with the resulting poverty and discrimination a heavy burden for both Duckworth and her mother. Her mother had health problems as well, eventually dying at age 47. Through the years Duckworth found solace in God, gradually facing her pain and finding understanding. "I have always believed that Daddy abandoned me," she says. "All these years, I've pounded my gavel and pronounced Daddy guilty." That revelation of abandonment and blame is the basis for this book. While discussion questions at the end help Christian readers dig deeper into their own abandonment issues and find strength in a caring God, readers may wish for more obvious links sooner. Yet Duckworth's honesty about herself and her troubles is engaging as she describes her mistakes and missteps as well as her victories. Those who have read some of Duckworth's other 16 books will find much to enjoy, and new readers will relish getting to know this strong woman who knows first hand about life's hardships and God's faithfulness.