EP 70 | Molly's Story: Beauty From Brokenness

What if the darkest chapter of your life could become the raw material for something beautiful? Molly joins us to share a rare, vulnerable account of moving from childhood sexual trauma and years of substance use to a grounded, faith-centered life where recovery is real and creativity heals. Her story isn’t a tidy turnaround; it’s a slow, steady walk out of confusion and into clarity, backed by scripture, community, and the kind of grace that keeps showing up.

If this moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find their way to the same hope. 

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Molly Cherry spent years running from herself—using addiction, manipulation, and self-destruction to numb what she didn’t know how to face. But what she was really running from was the pain Jesus wanted to heal. Her escape led to broken relationships, mental hospitals, trauma, and moments when her family almost had to live without her. Yet in her darkest place, God’s grace found her. Jesus didn’t shame Molly—He rescued her, rebuilt her, and showed her real freedom. Molly's recovery is not just her story—it’s His, and proof that no one is too far gone for redemption. 

Connect with Molly:

On Facebook: Art for One's Self
On Instagram: @yesterdayagain

About the She Surrenders Podcast:

On the She Surrenders podcast we are talking about women, faith and addiction all on the same platform. There are many podcasts for women and sobriety, but very few for women seeking information and stories from others about faith-based recovery.   

Help us reach more listeners: like, subscribe, review, and share. 

Find us on Instagram @shesurrenders_sherry, on Facebook @shesurrenderssherry, and online at www.shesurrenders.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome back to the She Surrenders Podcast. I'm Sherry, and my heart behind this podcast is to bring you the excellent news that faith-based recovery is where you'll discover the joy in life you never thought possible while you were in the bondage of addiction. The stories you'll hear from women and sometimes men who have walked in your shoes or alongside someone who has will inspire you to pursue the same freedom they've found. This freedom comes from surrendering not only our addictions, but also our guilt and shame to God. Matthew 19, verse 26 tells us, with man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. I pray that today's episode brings you to a new understanding that this is true for you too, because it is. Now, on to our guest. So welcome back to the She Surrenders podcast. Today I have a new friend with me, uh, my friend Molly. And Molly reached out to me. She's local to me, and she had contacted me at Sayla House and came and just met and said, How can you use me? And she has a recovery story. So of course I hit her up to be on the podcast. And um, she also is an artist and with a flair um for telling her story in her art. And she came and shared that with the ladies at Sayla House one night too, and they fell in love with her as well. I'm excited to have her here. So welcome, Molly. Thank you. Hi, Sherry. So good to see you again. And like I said, the girls absolutely loved the art that they made. And I'm not going to spoil it and tell everybody what they did or what it was made of because I could not believe it. But it all goes with your story. So I'm going to let you tell that. So with that, I'll just let you get started.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Great. Hello. Glad to be here, Sherry. Thank you for setting up this platform for those of us who um want to share our stories and spread the word. And it is um with great honor to God that I am here to be able to speak freely. Um, and there were many years that I didn't speak freely, didn't have the courage to do that. And um I think my mouth was, my voice was silenced through childhood trauma that I held on to in secret for many years. Um being my first memory was childhood trauma. And coming out then with that, you know, speaking, finally opening my mouth and using my voice to share um my experience. And thankfully, I was um embraced, I was surrounded by love and my family, and that really then, however, in that blessing of family, however, that started the chaos in my life. I didn't know how to manage my feelings. It's a sexual abuse trauma, so I didn't know how to manage those things and my thoughts surrounding it. And now that it's out, I'm completely exposed. I don't like that. I don't know what to do with that. I had had held that secret for many years, so now it's out. And I wanted to run as far away from myself as possible. Um we then, you know, there were some le there was some legal stuff we pursued, you know, that type of avenue. Um, then I, you know, re-retracted from that and said, no, I don't want to do that. Um and about teenager, I started experiencing, you know, experimenting with alcohol. And oh my gosh, like I loved it. I was like, it is on. That works. That's what I hear, you know. Yeah, that worked, that took it away. It did, yeah, instantly, just in my brain. This is it, this is the answer. And whether that was nicotine, and then that was the first, you know, click for me, and then alcohol, you know, at 13, 14. Um, and it just escalated for years. Anything that was in front of me that was going to remove my authentic self was the answer for me. For years, I ran, I tried all substances mainly. I mean, it it escalated to I don't I don't like to name the substance, right? Um, but it was I couldn't get any higher, any more altered. Um, and I the next step would have been most likely death, um, which I will I will say there were a couple of attempts to take my own life in that. So there was so much, anything that I could do to get away from myself, whether that was take my life, whether that was use substances, use people, steal, move away, move out of state. Um, I I tried it, whatever it was. And and of course, I mean, none of it worked. We know that. We know that God was like, okay, waiting, waiting, kind of letting me run. You know, there's free will, free will. So he's gonna, you know, kind of let me try all of the avenues. Well, in that, I moved to Colorado for a few years, and really then kind of unfortunately my wings spread, but they were really dark wings, I would say. Um, not, you know, not what God wanted for me. And I was experimenting with pretty hard drugs, um, back and forth from Michigan, Colorado, and continued to experiment with drugs then in Michigan, and um opened myself up to a very dark world, and it altered my reality into psychosis. There's also a diagnosis for bipolar disorder, adding the substances. I experienced psychosis, and and for years it was deemed a schizophrenic diagnosis, which I will say that that has been removed from my charts whatsoever since being in recovery. All of that's gone. I mean, that that's so liberating for me.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Oh, for sure. I mean, and at the time, were you honest about everything that was going on, like how much you were using and how much you know, all the substances? Yeah, we never are.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

So, why would we be?

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Yeah, so they're gonna obviously be like, it's gotta be mental illness, you know. Yes, you know, and that happens so often, you know, that we're not honest. And I've I've said too it's it's craziness that we would rather claim mental illness over addiction. You know, why is one better than the other, or why is one more guarded than the other? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

But and Cherry, it's so confusing because it can look like mental illness. Uh, you know, so it looked like no one knew because it looked like a mental illness for me. My first my first hospitalization, then um, I'm gonna backtrack a little bit at 17. I was institutionalized after having you know come out with the abuse, attempted to take my life. Um, thank the Lord that he stopped that. Um, so institutionalized at 17, and it didn't really stop for a uh length of time until I was 30. So in and out of pine rest, forest view, forest view, forest view, pine rest, pine rest. It you know, so it looked like like you were saying, mental illness, and I could kind of hide hide the substance use, the alcohol use.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Maybe you were more willing to be treated for mental illness because if we claim addiction, someone's gonna try and take that away.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah, right. Our our our crutch, if you will, which is yeah, first thing they're gonna do is say, Well, you need to stop that, and we don't want to hear that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

So are you getting medication on top of everything else now? Yeah, so yeah, there's that, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Mix it all in, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so oh wow, Molly. Yeah, yes. So it was, you know, and if we remove the substances, then I have to really look at why. Why am I using why am I drinking? Why am I running? And I was I didn't want to do that, you know. I held on to those things for so long, it was just kind of a part of me that I didn't want to probably subconsciously let go because it's what I knew.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Yeah, yeah. When it's all we know because we've run for so long, we've stopped learning how to cope with anything for sure. The big stuff, but we don't even know how to cope with the little stuff anymore.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Right, getting groceries, shopping, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Everything's a challenge, everything's a challenge, and that's why a lot of people don't understand that. That you know, why are you drinking all the time? Why would you need to drink to do that? It's because I just simply lost the ability to function to do anything, you know. Um and that's really hard to understand now, but it's the state of mind that you're in, you know, it's it's convincing.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah, yeah. It it was, it was, and um I remember being in pine rest, I think it was, and it had kind of come out that I was using. And the uh uh a worker there said something in front of my mom, and it was like the you know, kind of the reaction was shock. She was shocked, and I was in my 20s, maybe my early 20s. Um, and then it kind of, you know, then it was out. It was out, and it just felt really like it's really blurry all of that time. I'm not sure how that was addressed, although it wasn't addressed, the substances weren't necessarily addressed because it still looked like mental illness. It it looked like psychosis. I was I was inside, and I think this is a big um important part to address is the the my reality was so skewed from the reality that we are we experience right here, right now today. Like we're looking at each other, it's you know, that's kind of the norm. Um from nine, yeah, 19 years old until probably 30 really. I was living inside and outside of this reality, and I knew it was happening, and I couldn't stop it. I didn't have control over removing my mental state, my reality, which was outside of this reality. It so sounds so wild to me. I talk about this and I'm like, this is who am I talking about? This is kind of crazy, yeah. Um, yeah, and who am I talking about? Like, this is my experience, and it just is outside of of um probably even my comprehension, but yeah, but God's understanding of it, God knew what was going on, God knew that he was not going to let me stay there, although in that time I didn't know that, I didn't believe that he was not going to keep me there. I thought it would never stop. I and most likely my family thought it would just never stop. I remember my mom saying, what so my me, my mom was diagnosed with Lugerg's disease in 07. I got clean, and that's my sobriety year, 07. She and I was living with her prior to the diagnosis, and you know, I wasn't, I didn't want to stick around. I'm like, this is too much. Yeah. And thankfully, you know, I did I stayed, and I would have regret it if I didn't. And I I um took took care of her. I was, you know, I took care of her and went to AA meetings like it was my job. And I had I had had a therapist, you know, say, I think you might have a problem. And I'm like, okay. And I wasn't really using or drinking at the time. There are so many years where I couldn't, like I said, I couldn't get to that altered state without taking it to the next level and probably overdosing. Like six shots weren't enough to get like it's let's just get right to it. Um, so I kind of backed off because I'm like, I can't really get there anymore. Right. Right. And I wasn't in that, I wasn't in that environment as much. I couldn't really work. Um, I was on disability for some time. I couldn't hold a job. Um, I tried to do peer support for a short time and and had another episode, if you will, you know, mental illness relapse into psychosis. I I couldn't meld the realities um or remove myself from that altered reality. And when I look at it, it's like another realm. We talk about the spiritual realms. I was in this realm, I was almost between the two for a very long time, in the dark and in the light, and trying to discern which was the right place to be.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

It is impossible, you know, especially having not been through that part of it, to comprehend what the brain is capable of, you know, and it's it's really scary. It's really scary. It is scary, especially because you say all this is gone.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

When you quit.

unknown 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yes. What the substances and does to the brain, like you were saying, is it's really a miracle to have removed the substances and to have healed, you know, retrained my brain and retrained my every day, just what it what my day looks like.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

It's it's miraculous.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

So in that old time, in that those years that you know, 11 or so years that you were doing all the damage and you were in and out of the hospital. Was your faith in there? Were you, you know, what did that look like?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah, I was thinking about that because it was like I was saying, hard to discern what was a true, you know, what was God and and what wasn't. Uh and and it was, I was searching. There were times where I would kind of clear up mentally, and I was going to church um on my own as an adult. I was raised in in the church. Um, typically, you know, teenage years, then you're done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, my my mom, who was a you know, single mom most of our most of our lives couldn't really, you know, make those decisions fully for us. So we did. Um yeah. And so I would go back to church, um, and that and get really involved in the church. And and I loved it. It was it was that grounding that I that I longed for, that I didn't know that was there all along, all along. But then I would falter and fall into, and I I think that because of there wasn't full healing, I wasn't able to stay there or allow God to heal me. Um, I I was kind of wobbling in that. So I was in and out of the church on my own, um, in reading the Bible a lot. So, Sherry, in that altered state, in that confusion of what is real, like looking at the Bible, and then my mind telling me, or probably Satan telling me, that's not true. That's not, you like this side. You like the the chaos and the the feelings that are going to pull you from what is true. So he was able to use my mental illness in that that um trauma and and all of those things that I you know that I went to for so long, he was able to use that to pull me from the truth, which then pulled me into an extremely dark place. And I'm hesitant often to say that but I believe it. I believe there was complete possession of my self. There were times where I was like gnashing teeth where I was like this, it's it's pretty intense where there were um I was in four-point restraints and hospitals um because I was just I think there was just complete full possession. God was like, nope, she's mine. She's mine, she's not yours, but I had to experience that and understand that that's where substances and alcohol. And all of those things, the the addictions, along with some mental illness in there is going to take us into the darkest places of the realms.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

So when you said earlier, you said the two realms. In my mind, I was like, there's only two realms that I know of. And I'm like, I truly, I believe that. You know, and I think that anybody's that is, you know, in that pit, you know, I I look at all the you know things that I've said or things that I've heard other people say about being at the absolute pit of the rock bottom, the darkness. You hear the rock bottom stories because you landed in jail or whatever. But to me, the rock bottom stories are the ones where you're crying out to God because you are in the dark, and it is the scariest, most loneliest place to be. Because you know there's only one way out. And that's to me what you're describing, but on a much different level.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah, and as you're saying that, I'm I'm like thinking of the the mud, I like the muck that I was trying to get through. I was trying to get through the mud, and the mud was in my eyes. I couldn't see, I couldn't really hear, and also experiencing hallucinations. So I'm seeing things, it's almost like God was showing me the dark, the reality of that dark world. I saw literally. So it's a different interpretation of addiction. Not just so many of us experience that that darkness inside, but I think some people, my experience is I saw it. I saw it was not only inside me, but I saw it around me. I could I there were, if you will, messages from the other side that I was aware of and I'm still aware of. And I I now like coming into sobriety and recovery, it feels like a gift. There's that sensitivity to the spiritual realms. That's a gift that God has used my terrible, terrible experiences at the time, that hell that we walk through. He's like, Okay, you're mine now. She's Molly now. I'm allowing him to work. And he's like, Okay, I've been waiting for you. I've been waiting.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

I keep I have this verse running through my head, the Lord will fight for you. You need only be still. That gives me the chills.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Yeah. And thankfully, like we having to retrain our brains to know that truth, to know that he will. Because in in that, in the addiction, in that darkness, we don't know that. There were times I remember being like, I would go to the Bible. It was like my only um almost tangible truth, but I didn't know it was fully true. I didn't know it in my heart and mind. But being in the institutions so many times, I carried my Bible around. That's I just sat and read the Bible and read the Bible and read like the solid rock we stand. That was my only rock. I'm amongst the the insanity, if you will, of the that world, either in an institution or in the world using substances and and running in the darkness. It didn't matter where I was there, it was dark. That's the only thing that was solid. Whether I believed it truly and was walking with the Lord, that was it. And I just read the Bible all the time, but I wasn't comprehending really what it meant.

unknown 24:02

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

It's uh uh a beautiful experience, I think that brokenness that that I experienced, and that so many of us do in our journey of substances and alcohol use, um, and the you know, trauma, all of the things, because they're I mean, we drink or whatever for this, these reasons. Um, and I was, and I I I have to say that I was sober about two years when my mom passed, um, and stayed sober, you know. So I've been through so many things in sobriety that would have wrecked me, but I had my faith at that time. I knew the truth, I knew the Lord would fight for me if I just stood in him, in that truth. And it was AA. I was surrounded by women in AA and allowed them to surround me, and they kind of held me together. Um, I stayed sober, I lost pretty much everything, you know, my housing, my jobs. I mean, I've been, you know, homeless with$17 in my pocket and couldn't go to breakfast with my friend because I had only$17. You know, there's so much that we lose in um our addiction. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

There wasn't a a line that was like, this is the day. Yours was kind of gradual, like you weren't using because you you were taking care of your mom, but you were um you couldn't, you were chasing, you couldn't kind of give up on chasing the high. And so you just kind of started going to AA, and that just kind of eventually you were like, I want to stay here. I love that, it's rare.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

I think of that, and and it's like, is that wrong? Because so many people have that, this was it. But it was like a gradual. I think the Lord knew that if it were sudden for me, I would I would have run. I would have like, nope, not doing that. That's too much. So we had to I think it says that he already had you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Yeah. He did like, I got you, you're not letting go, but I think we need to reinforce things, Lil Pat.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

So it's been uh it's I think 18. 18. Well, I think I had to in AA, they're like, all right, you need to pick a date. And I was like, um, um no, I don't I and then I was like, oh, I had a sip of alcohol at a friend's wedding reception. I guess that'll be my day. So it's probably been longer and longer for hard substances, but not as much for alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

Um and all those things that were written on your chart are no longer truth.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

That's amazing. Amazing. Yeah, I will say the by the bipolar is still there and managed, and I'm allowing that to be managed. Um, but yeah, the I mean, when the doctor was like, I think we I think it's time to get this off the chart.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Yeah, that's that's incredible. So tell me about life today. What what started to evolve that was beautiful?

SPEAKER_01 27:38

God has given me this new discovery um of making things from from trash, from like discovery.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

I did, yes, there is that.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

I don't want him to listen to this, honey. Thanks for uh that I know that some of the materials you use come from him, so so true.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yes, sorry, honey. Um, yeah, the gift, he's a gift. I say he's he's like gold, yeah. God, God knew. Um, so with having been married for five years, it's I think God now knows. Okay, all right, Molly, Molly is experiencing marriage, you know, got the gift of God. Um, and he's allowing me to now create things from trash. When my husband and I bought this house, we had so much packing paper that it was, I'm like, I can do something with this. So I started braiding it and started um making wreaths and tree, you know, packing paper, trees, and so many things that I just started doing this, and then God reminded me, Ollie, you are making beautiful things from discarded material, you're creating beauty from the unwanted. Who wants all of this packing paper? And I do, I want it, you know. My husband and his co-workers are collecting 50 gallon trash bags of packing paper from work, and I'm braiding it and making beautiful things from discarded materials, and they are beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

They you made you came and made trees with the girls at Sayla House one night, and I was just stunned how beautiful they were. I was thank you so taken aback because yeah, I mean, thank you. I I thought, this is from packing paper, you know. So all of a sudden everybody's saving packing paper over there, waiting for the Amazon box.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

It's everywhere, it's everywhere. Oh, yeah, it's great, it's great, and thank you. Um, yeah, and you tell a story when you, you know, of beauty from ashes.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah. Yeah, that's what he he does. And we have that, you know, we not only have our story that we can share with our voices and books and so many platforms, but that tangible and reminding us that we, you know, could we believed we were trash at one point or discarded, or we wanted to be, and now God is like, no, no, no, no, nope. I have more for you. I have beautiful things that I'm going to use from that yucky part of life, and that tangible for me that he's given me is taking the trash, making wreaths and trees. And I also use plastic bottles and make flowers and beads and jewelry. And it's it's a gift, it's a new thing that gift that he's given me to be able to remind me that he has good for us and beautiful things, and he wants to use our stories.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Oh, yeah. Yeah, beautiful. And so um, that's definitely a full circle of um starting with trauma that um shape the trajectory of your life, and unfortunately, and I'm so sorry about that. And um it's a you know, anybody listening, I I pray that they hear that as a in and it's a cry for help, you know, you don't have to suffer with that your whole life. Um our secrets, they do, you know, there's that line, our secrets make us sick, and they do, you know, they do. And um, it's so much better to live in the light and live free because God will use it a hundred percent. Do you have um a scripture that you'd like to share here?

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Yes, I do. It's Ephesians 2, 8 through 9. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

I love that. I love that. Where would we be without that grace? Yeah, gift, and that reminder to extend it to others, you know, grace, yes, it's a beautiful thing. We get this picture in our head of what this should look like, and again, I want to show you that it doesn't, it doesn't look like anything that you think it's gonna look like because um addiction, mental illness, sexual abuse, it's not picky, it doesn't care what you look like, and it doesn't care who you are, doesn't care what your demographic is. Um, evil is not choosy, um, but God.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

True, yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

So, yeah, so thank you very much, Molly, for being here. And I'm sure your story is going to inspire and help many people. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Thank you, Sherry. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you found encouragement and inspiration from what you heard here. If you know someone who could benefit from the She Surrenders podcast, please share it with them. Let's spread the word about the miracle of faith-based recovery. Don't forget, like, share, subscribe, and leave a review. Because when you do these things, it helps get the message to those who are seeking answers that can only be found when we put down our addictions and pick up the promises of a whole new life when we walk in recovery with the Lord. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next time.