Some people say that we need God the most in times of darkness. No one knows this more than actress Jamie Lynn Spears. She credits God for saving her daughter’s life and helping her navigate her mental health struggles. During an interview on “Good Morning America” about her new memoir Things I Should Have Said, Spears details her experience in 2007 after getting pregnant at 16.

Due to intense media attention, she says that people around her wanted to make the issue disappear. However, Spears says she stood up for herself and thanked God for doing so. Spears took a break from her productive career in Hollywood to raise her daughter, Maddie Briann Aldridge. When Maddie was 8-years-old, God used a near-fatal accident to change Spears’ life forever. Maddie flipped an ATV and got trapped underwater for more than six minutes while Spears tried to rescue her. Paramedics airlifted her to the hospital in critical condition. Although Maddie was unconscious for several days, she miraculously recovered.

After Maddie’s remarkable recovery, Spears took to Instagram with a photo of a Christian devotional and testified to God’s goodness. In her post, Spears said that music and her career were always a big passion in her life, and she had success as a writer and artist, but she wondered when she would get her big break. Spears added that her daughter’s accident helped her realize that she should only put time into things that matter. In another social media post a few weeks prior, Spears discussed God’s mercy, saying that God showed us grace, and we still feel undeserving of His mercy.

In her most recent interview, the former “Zoey 101” star says that the experience brought her closer to God. Spears says it also made her re-examine her life, including her struggles with mental health. The mother of two revealed that she suffers from depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and severe anxiety, but this was something she hid for years. However, Spears said her daughter’s accident put things into perspective, saying when your worst fear happens, you get a lot less afraid of everything else. She added that it made her reevaluate everything, who she was as a person, and where she needed to be better.

Spears and her older sister, pop-star Britney Spears, have recently been at odds because Britney felt like Jamie Lynn wasn’t there for her during her conservatorship battle. In a recent Instagram post, Jamie Lynn begged Britney to call her instead of fighting over social media. Jamie Lynn Spears has endured a lot during her lifespan. She has been through the wringer from getting pregnant at 16 and dealing with loads of media attention to her daughter’s near-fatal accident. Nevertheless, she chose to get closer to God after these occurrences instead of straying further away.

It’s possible that God used her daughter’s accident to show her that she needs to live for today and follow her dreams. Hopefully, Spears uses her new perspective to go after what she wants instead of waiting for the right time to accomplish her goals.