Mariel Hemingway recently shared in an interview how faith allowed her to find joy in what was an otherwise depressing life before she came to Jesus. The actress, who is also the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, spoke about how Christianity allowed her to overcome her family’s past, one which was mired by alcoholism and drug abuse.
Hemingway starred in “God’s Country Song” released on June 16. The film, produced by Pure Flix, gave Hemingway an opportunity to speak about her new perspective in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Hemingway, who has had seven family members commit suicide, said this about the state of her family. “I had depression probably most of my life… My belief in God has been a cornerstone for me… It has helped me understand the things that I came from. I come from an amazing family, but there was also a lot of addiction, alcoholism, depression and suicides. And very serious mental illnesses that I was deeply afraid of.”
Hemingway went on to share with fans that it is her faith that has kept her from falling into these traps, saying, “My belief in God and my belief in prayer and connecting with the God within and your inner voice – that has always been… a saving grace for me and a good path for me.”
She also has used her faith to better understand her family and sympathize with the struggles that they may face. She shared, “It reminds me that all of this is so interconnected. I believe in lifestyle. I believe in connecting to the Earth. I think nature is… God’s expression of how beautiful where we live is. We need to protect that. And we also need to connect to that because we’re so much a part of it.”
Hemingway also spoke about a “connection” that she felt with her grandfather, the former Nobel Prize-winning author who took his own life with a gun at age 56. Growing up in the town where he ended his life was a stark reminder of the traumas that her family had so often died with.
When she set off to make her acting dream a reality, she used that as a launching pad to find peace in her life. She said, “When I was a kid, I made a decision that I’m gonna be the one in the family that fixes everybody. I’m gonna figure it out. I’ll do it. I became a caretaker even at a young age. My mother had cancer and then my father had a heart attack. And when I left my home to go and make movies, that’s when I was on a self-discovery.”
Her story can serve as motivation to anyone going to troubling times. Faith in the Lord can really work wonders for one’s psyche and day-to-day happiness as long as they are willing to commit.
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