Elizabeth Esther > Quotes

“We were taught to share at the expense of our own well-being. We came to associate self-care and self-love with selfishness.”
― Elizabeth Esther, Spiritual Sobriety: Stumbling Back to Faith When Good Religion Goes Bad

“It has taken nearly a decade to realize that living frantically isn’t, in fact, a virtue. Or healthy. To”
― Elizabeth Esther, Girl at the End of the World: My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future

“Disassociation. It is a word I have heard before but never in reference to that mind trick I had used to cope. That trick isn't a figment of my imagination. It was real. It had a name. And if the coping mechanism was real, it means what I have experienced was real too.”
― Elizabeth Esther, Girl at the End of the World: My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future

“Shame Brain happens when we see our mistakes as our identity. It’s the difference between “I made an error” and “I am an error.” Shame Brain can also take root when we allow others to blame us for things that are not our responsibility—”
― Elizabeth Esther, Spiritual Sobriety: Stumbling Back to Faith When Good Religion Goes Bad

“The greatest danger to a church’s spiritual health is a pastor-centric church model.”
― Elizabeth Esther, Spiritual Sobriety: Stumbling Back to Faith When Good Religion Goes Bad

“God is big enough to meet us anywhere. A”
― Elizabeth Esther, Girl at the End of the World: My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future

“I am fed up with reading about God through the male perspective only. I want to experience the God who inspired me as a child, the God who found me long before I could comprehend a single word in my Bible. I want to experience God pursuing me for once. I am tired of seeking, striving, and knock-knock-knocking on heaven’s door. I no longer want to know that silent, capricious, harsh God who would just as soon throw me into the fires of hell as save me. I am challenging God to pursue me like someone who has never been exposed to the Bible. Love me, God. I dare You.”
― Elizabeth Esther, Girl at the End of the World: My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future

“So much of our anger, frustration, and difficulty could be avoided if we simply went to bed when we were tired, ate when we were hungry, and called a friend when we were angry or lonely. Frankly, addicts expend a lot of energy on not feeling their needs. RAs feel guilty for being human. We believe others are worthy of having their needs met but we aren’t. Once we start accepting that our needs aren’t bad—indeed, God created us with them!—we stop feeling guilty for practicing self-care. In the words of a daily devotional, “Maybe Someone gave me the need because Someone planned to fulfill it. Maybe I had to feel the need, so I would notice and accept the gift.”* 14”
― Elizabeth Esther, Spiritual Sobriety: Stumbling Back to Faith When Good Religion Goes Bad