Self-Acceptance

Did I say I'd write my thoughts about Joyce Meyer's writings on Tuesday? I meant Thursday. Yeah, yeah - Thursday.

To say that I've had issues with self-acceptance is an understatement. This is something I've battled my entire life but I'm happy to say, I'm on my way to victory. Maybe self-acceptance just comes with age because after awhile, you just get sick of the fight. You get tired of that nagging voice in your head that tells you you're not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, this enough or that enough so you grab that little voice by the neck and shove it's annoying little self into a box and leave it on the side of the road somewhere.

You know, like people leave cats out in the country. That sort of thing.

I'm still working on it. I'm not completely there yet. But I can tell you this - finally accepting the fact that God accepts me AS IS has been a huuuuuge step forward for me. For the first (nearly) two years after I returned to the church, I had a hard time believing that I was good enough for God's family. I felt like a welcomed dinner guest but couldn't see myself actually making my home there with Him. Like Joyce Meyer said - I had been in the habit of rejecting myself so I automatically concluded that God would ultimately reject me as well. Why would someone so pure, so holy, so good and so perfect want me at His dinner table all the time?

It took some time, but I finally realized that I go to Christ to be cleansed, not go to Christ already cleaned up. If I (or you) were to wait until I had myself all spiffy and shiney before giving myself up to Christ, well, it just wouldn't happen, let's be honest.

Someone once gave me this example:

Say it had been a long, long time since you last saw your children and you finally got the chance to be with them again. Say your children came running up to you dirty and grimey, would you stop them before they reached you and told them they had to go wash up first before hugging you? No, of course not! God is the same way. He wants us even if we're dirty, grimey and a mess! Just as long as He gets us!

Well, He's got me and, together, we're doing a fine job of cleaning up my messes here & there. If you're a mom of a toddler you'll get this reference - God is like a great, big Magic Eraser!

God Bless!