The Kindness of God’s Acceptance

God’s acceptance of me boggles my mind, when I think about it. 

Too often, I don’t – think about it, I mean.  Instead, I hide from myself,or others, or Him.  Yet hiding doesn’t change reality.   No matter where I hide, He is there, with His arms open wide to me.  He is fully aware of my faults and failings, and loves me lavishly in the middle of them. (BTW, one of the best ways to hide from yourself or God is to stay too busy.)

In order to receive the full measure of God’s acceptance, I must stop each day and remember that God knows my every thought before it becomes a word or an action, and is intimately acquainted with all my habits.

This is gritty reality. He accepts me knowing every unkind word I have uttered, every selfish act I have done, or will do.  Even more daunting, God accepts me knowing the ugliness of the motives behind some of my words and actions, those things often hidden from others.  He accepts me with my petulance, pride, manipulation, greed, impatience, annoyance.  It boggles the mind.

You would think this would be depressing, but in truth, it is quite the opposite.

The understanding that finally someone knows me completely and loves me unconditionally,   empowers me to accept myself with all my faults and failings, an to give my true self to Him each day, and allow Him to make me whole once again.

I can start each day:

• Celebrating who I am – His precious child, made perfect by Him.
• Rejoicing where I am – on His path to growth and wholeness, with Him showing me the way.
• Embracing what I am called to do – love Him, others and myself – in the unique way He created me.

How are you starting your days?

By Lydia Floren