Monday, February 13, 2012

Acceptance



It's a warm day in the summer and I'm at a friend's birthday party.

I can clearly remember focusing on my polly pocket watch toy that I had just gotten at a Mcdonald's, or somewhere like it, while my eyes well up with tears.
I'm five years old; already discovering the hurt and pain of what it feels like to be on the "outside".

I'm sure I had happily arrived at that party, but somewhere along the way the girls started whispering to each other and they wouldn't include me.

Even at that young age of five, especially at that age, but even now in my twenties, I had and still have the longing to be included in something. We all want to know that we belong. We want to feel it. We want to be loved and accepted.
It truly hurts and pains us when we feel, for some reason or another, unaccepted for who we are.
We've all felt it. You know in your heart of hearts, it feels plain good to be accepted and welcomed.

It's something that's been swimming around in my head, and I'm trying to make sense of it.

There's been some point in your life that you haven't felt accepted by someone or a group of people. It bothers us... at the same time, knowing what it's like to be accepted, I think sometimes we (and I know I'm guilty of it a time or two) turn around and do the same thing to others. We don't include them, or we judge them or in some way or another whether we show it or not...we don't accept them.

I'm so guilty of it, and I know others are (but that's not the point)

I'm just trying to grasp it and understand how odd it is. We ALL want the same thing...to be loved and accepted, so why can't we do that all the time for each other?

It's such a vicious cycle... and I think maybe in our brokenness, sometimes it feels good to put people on the outside like people put us on the outside. It makes us feel justified to judge and control and manipulate.

Just thinking...

I want to love and accept everyone all the time, and I'm praying to get better at it.

Of course God, always loves. always accepts. and never casts out. He will never reject us or put us on the outside. Jesus was the best example of that.
Ohh, how I still have so much to learn!

Hope you enjoy pondering on that with me today.
:)


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