In part one, we looked at the very real possibility that many of us, although we accepted the freedom Jesus bought for us, continue to have our minds and emotions stuck in the 'slavery mindset'. It conditions a person to accept harmful circumstances to themselves as the natural order of things. They view their own worth through their master's eyes. They believe about themselves what they have been told to believe, whether it's true or not. The dichotomy between our freedom and the slavery mindset is like longing for a certain gift, yearning for it, building our hope upon it,…

“I freed a thousand slaves. I would’ve freed a thousand more, if they only knew they were slaves.”  ~Harriet Tubman If they only knew they were slaves… In writing and researching the Civil War, I learned Confederate plantation owners often made it their goal to break the will of their enslaved.  They would make it their goal to have the slave accept their "station" as a mindset. After all, ‘normal’ is whatever you grow up with. ‘Normal’ is what you’ve always known. Frederick Douglass put it this way: “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary…

I’ll never forget the night I told God, “I want out.” I was Miss Christian. I did it all. Taught the classes. Organized VBS. Took the teens to church camp. Always smiling. Always ready to lend a hand. And I was miserable inside. Depression is a silent cry. Likewise, anxiety is a storm of crippling intensity inside the mind, but can appear like a tranquil lake on the outside. Depression is not always the dark-clad figure hiding in the back of the room. It’s the smiling cheerleader, the teacher, the mother, the pastor, or the successful businessman. It demands perfection.…

In part one, I told you all about how those pesky Disney princess messed me up, as well as diving into how perfectly unhappy I became trying to be, well, perfect. Am I the only recovering perfectionist out there? I left you dangling with this question: now that we recognize the problem, and see what causes it, what will we do about it? 1. First of all, remind yourself that God loves you no matter how well, or how poorly, you perform. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced…

The Disney princesses messed me up. I confess I had quite a fascination with them when I was growing up (after I finished my Princess Leia phase, that is). I was going to be as beautiful as Aurora and I was going to have a grand adventure like Belle. And I was going to be a singer like Ariel. Or at the very least, a marine biologist. But let's get real for a moment, shall we? There was one big problem with all those Disney beauties. They had no flaws. Don't get me wrong. What made them such great heroines…

Not long ago I was scrolling through social media and found myself disheartened. Photo after photo slapped me awake with immodest images, crude language and innuendo. Worldly philosophies permeated the newsfeed. “Follow your heart.” “Never take no for an answer.” “The best thing we can do for our daughters to show them how to be happy.” The more I saw, and the more I’ve observed in the past year, the more I’ve begun to ask, “Where have all the good girls gone?” ' Standing up for yourself and being a fiery, strong-willing “woman” is the ideal. The result? We’ve created…