Prison – A Place to receive punishment, A safe haven for security, or an invisible bondage to hold us back from our full potential.

There is something to be said about giving up  your freedom for protection. This is a common belief in America. We give up some of our “rights” in order to receive protection from the government. Especially in a social media since, we let the government and other companies track who says what in the hopes to stop potential threats from coming to fruition.

But what about in our minds? who do we give the keys to search our thoughts and dreams to keep us from making poor choices?

Who do you trust with your heart, your thoughts, your desires. To be honest I trust a stranger with those things more than my own friends and family. It is easier in life to tell you deepest darkest secretes to someone you have never met. They have no preconceived notions to who you are as a person. They don’t know any of the masks you hide behind. The have no judgement on who you have been or who they think  you will be. You just get the raw honest truth.

When I am listening or thinking about my own friends and family my heart is already judging their choices, the dream, etc. If I already feel that way about others how much more do they do the same.

**News Flash** It is that exact belief that has created these invisible bars around my heart.

I have been all to familiar with living in fear and shame that my family and friends would find the truth about how I live my life and what I think. When I learned about walking in the light “being honest with everyone about everything” I was given so much freedom. I realized that this “prison” I had put myself in protected my heart but planted seeds of fear that gripped me. I would isolate myself to such a degree that even I didn’t know the truth about myself and who I was anymore. When I began to be honest I found that those people who really loved me didn’t judge me or cast me out. That was my biggest fear, that the ones I loved would no longer want to have anything to do with me. That I was to be disowned.

True love cast out all fear

1 John 4:18 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

I was punishing myself with fear. I wasn’t protecting my thoughts or desires. The crazy thing about a prison is people can still see in. You can’t hide anything the only thing a prison does it keep you from leaving that place of isolation.

I  have been made in perfect love. There are those who may cast me aside, but I will no longer place myself in the prison of “safety & fear”. Instead I will walk in freedom with the courage to love and be loved through every hard time and every time of joy and peace.

I pray for the same to all who read this. That you can begin to walk in the light experiencing the freedom that comes from honesty, love, and being yourself.