YOU'RE EXCEPTIONAL - YOU'RE ACCEPTED

What does it mean to you to know that you are ACCEPTED, my sweet exceptional friend? I know it's important to you without even hearing your answer. That's because I know that unconditional love and acceptance are two of the most basic needs of all humanity.

Notice the little children around you. They are constantly striving for acceptance and approval from the people they consider important. "I colored this picture for you, Gran. Do you like it?" "Watch me, Gran. See how high I can swing!"

From the time we, ourselves, were young children asking those same kinds of questions, most of us have lived with the false belief that if we did things "just right" . . . if we lived "perfectly" . . . people would approve and accept us. Some of us are full grown adults today and are still clamoring for the approval of our parents (or others) just like we did as little children.

Somewhere along the path of our lives, all of us have failed to meet the approval of someone that mattered to us and have gotten introduced to rejection. The sad part comes when we compromise our spiritual integrity to avoid that rejection. And that's exactly what many of us do. It's easy to get caught in a trap of not being true to ourselves - of not being true to the exceptional woman God created us to be - when we make personal compromises just for the sake of someone else's approval.

That's what I did for more years of my life than I care to count. Detesting rejection in any form and hungering for continual approval and acceptance, I learned early on to do whatever it took to keep the people in my life "pleased" with me. If it meant keeping an opinion to myself, I pushed it down and kept it buried. If it meant not expressing my true feelings or emotions, I suppressed them. I avoided conflict at all costs because I so desperately feared the rejection it might bring. Even as a young child, teenager, and young adult this behavior made me susceptible to frequent bouts of "the blues" and mild depression. The continued practice of suppressing my feelings over the years eventually resulted in a full blown depression that wove its way in and out of my life for over five long years.

Oh girls! If we could only learn at a YOUNG age! If we could teach our daughters and our granddaughters! WE ARE ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED!!! We don't have to struggle to win or keep the approval of people. Our lives and happiness doesn't depend on whether or not they reject us. We are unconditionally loved and totally accepted by God! That is ALL that truly matters! We may experience the rejection of someone we love, but God, our Heavenly Father, will NEVER forsake us. God accepts us just as we are. We don't have to DO anything so that someday He will love and accept us. He loves and accepts us exactly as we are this very minute. We don't earn His love and acceptance. He gives it to us from His bounty of grace and mercy. What we DO and how we live should be in response to God's love for us, not as an attempt to earn His favor!

Finding our acceptance in Christ affects our relationship with others. In the first place, we'll be more open and genuine. That's always a plus in relationships. But, perhaps even MORE importantly, we'll be free to ACCEPT others with the same acceptance He has given us.

Our needs for acceptance and belonging are legitimate needs. They are God-given. Everyone has them. The problem arises when we try to meet those needs independent of God. That's when we are doomed to reap the misery and dissatisfaction that a self-directed, self-focused, self-involved life inevitably brings.

YOU are exceptional, girlfriend, because you are totally and completely ACCEPTED by the King of the Universe who loves you unconditionally!!