Acceptance is the foundation for everything in your life. Your attitude about yourself has a profound influence on your attitudes toward God, your family, your friends, and your future. When your foundation is firm, it gives you freedom from comparison with others and allows you to discover God’s goodness and His purposes in your design. And when you start living in your purpose and calling, abundance will naturally flow.
Your strength comes from self-acceptance. It grows as your confidence strengthens in the knowledge that God personally fashioned you according to His love and wisdom. He sculpted you with His own hands! Self-acceptance comes by recognizing that God has only begun His creative work in you and that He will finish His good work.
The good news is that accepting yourself is not one and done. You can continually be growing your strength and confidence. Through life’s changes, acceptance has been a struggle for me. It’s hard for me to shut out other’s opinions and expectations. As life changes, I have had to reevaluate and accept my new place on my journey. That only alone takes took a lot of courage.
Learning to accept oneself is an intimate act with God. To accept yourself, you have to surrender, give up control, and put yourself in God’s hands. Even if we fail or make a mistake, we are still valuable in God’s eyes.
“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’
Isaiah 45:9
We talk about self-acceptance in such a flippant way sometimes. We don’t stop and think about how our self-acceptance or lack thereof is shaping our whole life. If we don’t settle into ourselves, then we will grasp at straws to make things work, and then we will cry out to God, “Help me!” “Why God?” We have to take the time to do the deep work and figure out what stops us from accepting ourselves. Maybe just maybe, by embracing all that you are, you will no longer be questioning God about certain aspects of your life.
What is stopping you from accepting yourself just as you are?
