She takes good care of herself. Her make-up is always beautifully matched to her skin; her outfit showcases her elegance; her walk is discreet and her speech affectionate. A "pretty woman" on the outside, but only God knows what goes on inside her soul.

She wishes she could at least express her feelings to someone, but how? How can she express her intimate sorrows? They have been with her for so long - how would they make any sense to someone else?

It is hard to believe that a woman who seemingly has it all cannot succeed in those parts of her life in which she most needs to feel complete. But this is a harsh reality for many pretty women nowadays - not what colour suits them the best or what hairstyle is the most becoming, but what are they to do with all the interior baggage that is weighing down their life.

The baggage seems to get heavier over the years. It might begin with just a word from someone close that makes her rethink everything about herself. As time passes, more and more words and comments gather to form the baggage within. How can you break free from a load so enormous that it feels like a part of you?

First of all not every idea in that baggage is necessarily true - in fact, most is probably 100 percent untrue. Ideas are uttered in a simple opening of the mouth - they are seldom thought through before becoming words. Many of them are born from a spur-of-the-moment feeling, and these are usually the most hurtful. Words that distressed you from the moment you heard them are not worth taking very far - are not worth bagging and carrying around inside you forever.

Maybe what you carry within is not even a word someone has said, but a belief you've always had - a belief that emerged from a simple and wrong conclusion. Many women feel that they will never amount to anything in life. Why do they believe that? Because of some idea they have about themselves that began very early in life.

Maybe they achieved very little in school, and that was enough for them to believe they would never achieve anything. Or perhaps they looked in the mirror and thought they were not as beautiful as the next girl, so that became a belief that they were not beautiful at all!

No matter how you have filled up your bags, or when you started to fill them, or why they came to exist - they're still bags, heavy things to be carried around. Much of what they contain is surely unnecessary and, worst of all, you'll never go far if you're weighed down with carrying them all the time!

You must let go, and the sooner you do, the sooner you'll become a Free Woman - the woman you were meant to be - full of potential and capable of doing extraordinary things through faith.

Life is too complicated for extra baggage! Travel light; then you can sing, "Pretty woman, walking down the street..."