What do you base your estimate of yourself on? There is nothing to base yourself on. The world's preferences are only the world's preferences. The prefereces are temporary. Preferances change often enough.
The world is not the making of you. Nor is the world the undoing of you.
At one time, women were like scalps. A man's value might have been set by how many scalps he could collect. The world set such standards according to the amalgamated consciousness of the world that set one standard for men and another standard for women. It is the consciousness of the human world that set you up for the changeable standards of the world you were born into.
The world set a standard of abstinence, and said this constraint was to honor Me, as if, on one hand I give, and on the other hand, I take away unless you were authorized by a ceremony. It was as if you were denied to look up at the sky, as if the human heart were to be turned off, had to be legalized, as if I would order you not to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, as if I would evict you from the Garden of Eden as punishment for the crime of being a human Being, as if I would personally kick you out from Heaven. Would I be so foolish?
There is no one blanket for virtue.
Don’t make standards for others as if this were your right. The world wants to run itself on logic. A world without heart lacks common sense and logic along with heart.
Certainly, I don’t speak of anything goes. Life is not intended to be one extreme or another.
Never was My purpose to impose impossible standards upon anyone. Never was My desire that you lie to anyone and most certainly, not to yourself, nor do I suggest that you take advantage of anyone. I do ask you to be truthful. I do ask you to mean what you say or to not say it.
Mislead no one, and, most especially, don't mislead yourself.
I do not tell you to be free and then imprison you.
That I give you Free Will doesn’t mean that I give you something powerful and then, forbid it to you.
With desire comes responsibility. Of itself, there is no lawless nor lawful. Absolutes do not exist in the world.
Deception was acceptable when it worked. It was all right for the crime of pregnancy to be disguised. The refrain was: No one must know of this. No one must know because, if this were known, the whole family would be looked down upon.
It strikes Me that the disgraced family of the times was paying for the offenses of those who imposed the rules.
Once upon a time, it was deplorable for an unmarried woman to give birth, as if a baby were not beautiful, as if I would consider babies born out of wedlock as less than worthy and punish innocent little babes in My Name. I would not.
There might be a pretense to call a new baby the offspring of its grandmother, for instance, and a lie was perpetuated, as if to lie were fine and honorable.
The punishment for the crime of love was for the young mother to become ostracized and her whole family, including the baby, as well. Since when was hardheartedness honorable?
The way it was, the mother and and the mother's mother were seemingly given no choice but to march over to the poor house and leave the baby there, leave the baby to a disdained loveless life, as if forced denial of the heart would make any sense at all.
Hard-heartedness has no value.
Remember goodness and mercy.
Judgment is not the way to Me, nor is sense of guilt the way to Me.
Love is the way to Me. Every Soul is the way to Me.