Article July 16, 2001 Issue

How do you plead?

A discovery of innocence leads to wellness.

By Julie Ward

When I was just out of college, I spent two weeks learning a great deal about God and how God's nature is good. And I was enjoying it.

But then I thought about Jesus' words "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48), and I believed that it meant that we had to make ourselves into perfect humans. Be a perfect girl or boy.

So, I felt pressure in everything I did, and I took on a spirit of heaviness. It wasn't that I was doing anything bad—I just felt a constant self-criticism that I was not smart enough, not pretty enough, not a good enough housekeeper, not a good enough dancer.

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