| Abuse takes away freedom. | | | | Do you have those cute shoes that you can only |
| Our souls thrive in freedom. | | | | wear out to dinner? And that's because you will be |
| They die in abuse. | | | | sitting down most of the time. We hope so much to |
| When we allow another person to enter our sacred | | | | break those shoes in. We try and try. What |
| space and poison us, we slowly die. | | | | happens? We end up with corns from the friction, |
| If you are a victim of abuse reading this, you | | | | but oh aren't my shoes cute? |
| deserve more than tolerating life. | | | | It's similar to abuse in the fact that we stay with the |
| I know the shame you feel. | | | | abuser, hoping to break him in. Saying things like |
| People have asked me why did I stay? I tell them | | | | 'When we are married it'll get better or He's just had |
| that I was committed to the entity of marriage. I | | | | a bad day.' Here's the catch. He is not a pair of shoes. |
| find it interesting how we commit to a label and lose | | | | Instead of getting a corn on your foot you develop |
| commitment to ourselves. | | | | one on your heart. |
| We cling to the images we see on soap operas and | | | | The build up of having to protect your spirit from |
| movies. The happily everafter. | | | | insult causes the corn to wall off your feelings. |
| We enter marriage on a fairytale. One day we wake | | | | Bottom Line: We need to truly evaluate what we |
| up, and wonder what happened to our mind. Your | | | | value in ourselves. Do we value the health of our |
| mind was always there. Your commitment was to | | | | souls or value the label of marriage for appearance. |
| appearance rather than your soul. | | | | The choice is yours. You do have a choice. |
| Oprah had a show recently that helped me come up | | | | Remember that you are important in this world and |
| with a good analogy of tolerating an abusive | | | | God wants you to live fully and abundantly. You are |
| relationship. Oprah confessed that she tolerated her | | | | unique. Be bold and live with power . The person |
| feet being in pain for the sake of cute shoes. I can | | | | standing in the way is you. |
| identify with that. I bet you can too. | | | | |