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Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

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F R A N C I N E R I V E R S

“My mother wept, but she never said a word against my father. I told

him the first thing I would do when he died was free our slaves. It was the

first beating he ever gave me. He said if I was so enamored of them I could

live with them for a while.”

“Did you?”

“For a month. Then he ordered me back to the house. By then, my life

had really changed. Old Ezra brought me to the Lord. Up until then, God

was just a Sunday morning exercise my mother carried out in the parlor.

Ezra showed me how real God is. My father would have sold him if he

hadn’t been so old. He freed him instead. It was a worse fate. The old man

had nowhere to go, so he moved out into the swamps. I used to go out and

see him every chance I got and bring him what I could.”

“And your father?”

“He tried other ways of turning my thinking around.” His mouth curved

wryly. “He wanted me to know the full privileges of ownership.” He looked

at her. “A beautiful, young slave girl of my own to use any way I wanted. I

told her to go, but she wouldn’t. My father had ordered her to stay. So I left.”

He laughed softly and shook his head. “That’s not completely honest.

Actually, I fled. I was fifteen, and she was more of a temptation than I could

handle.”

Michael came and hunkered down in front of her. “Amanda, my father

wasn’t all bad. I don’t want you to think that of him. He loved the land, and

he did take care of his people. Other than that one time, he was decent to

the slaves he owned. He loved my mother and my brothers and sisters. And

he loved me. He just wanted everything his own way. And there was something

about me from the very beginning.… I didn’t fit the mold. I knew

someday I’d have to cut out on my own, but it was a long time before I had

the courage to leave everyone I loved behind, especially when I didn’t know

where I was going.”

She raised her eyes to his. “Do you ever think about going back?”

“No.” There was no doubt in his expression.

“You must have hated him.”

He looked at her solemnly. “No. I loved him, and I’m grateful he was my

father.”

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