Acceptance

Acceptance. We all want it. We all strive for it. We (if we’re nice) want others to feel it as well. But do we give it to ourselves? I don’t. …or, I haven’t.

I have spent my whole life comparing myself to others. I have never felt pretty enough, skinny enough, funny enough, smart enough, even Christian enough. I have never felt that I was truly a good daughter, sister, friend, missionary, teacher, even Christian. I love having people over for dinner, but I stress so much that something won’t be cooked perfectly or things won’t be arranged perfectly or something will go wrong.

I have honestly never felt that I was that great at anything. Did I do anything well? Sure. Did I believe that? Not at all.


I have always compared myself to someone else. …the skinny girl, the pretty girl, the daughter that lives near her parents that helps and takes care of them, the friend that does everything right, the missionary winning soul after soul for Jesus, the teacher with the most well-behaved class, the hostess with the mostest. :)

Why do I do this to myself? Think of a snake hiding in the grass, watching quietly, until just the moment that the weak thing comes out, and then he attacks. Then the venom from that attack courses through our veins and spreads until it’s totally consumed us. The snake is the devil. The weakness is our insecurities shining through. The venom is devil and his lies.

For too long, I have let the devil do this to me. I have let him have access to my mind. I have let these insecurities eat at me and eat at me, until they have totally consumed me.

A friend and I are reading a book called 21 Ways to Peace and Happiness by Joyce Meyer. One chapter deals with Self-Acceptance. I have never been so emotionally affected by a book (other than the Bible, of course). Ironically enough, my friend and I decided to skip around and read through the chapters out of order and we just settled on this one. I thought it was so ironic that it was this week, when I was feeling my lowest, that God brought this chapter to my attention. 


The part that stuck out the most was, "God made you. His design was perfect. God doesn't make mistakes. How can you put yourself down? How can you criticize yourself? When you're doing that, you're telling God that He messed up. You're criticizing God. How DARE you criticize your Heavenly Father or one of his perfect creations?" 


Wow! Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect. None of us are. We all make mistakes. But this has really changed my thinking. I have no right to criticize myself. I am a creation of God, the Father. I was made in the image of God. It's like a saying I once saw on a t-shirt..."God doesn't make junk."