Just Accept Me For Who I Am!
“I just want to be accepted for who I am.” That was a remark a good friend made recently at a cookout we had. I suppose we all feel that way from time to time. I know it’s a common statement but it got me thinking. What does that mean anyway?
Some people are quirky. Maybe they want people to accept them in their unique expressions of themselves and not feel they have to be like everyone else?
Some people may be a bit lazy or underachieving and just want people to ‘lay off’ and not push them?
Some people are rude or abrasive and just want to get it out there that they have no intention of being neither politically correct… nor civil for that matter?
In my humble opinion, “just accept me for who I am” might work fine for Mt Rushmore… but in the case of the human species, I’m not so sure it fits. Humans are in a constant state of change. Sometimes it is subtle like the changing of seasons or in the evolving of our perspectives and beliefs. Sometimes it comes with different roles we play as the stages of our lives unfold: i.e. child, spouse, parent, retiree, and caregiver. Sometimes it comes upon us suddenly or even tragically… “Your child has a syndrome,” “I want a divorce,” “I’m afraid the test came back malignant,” etc.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I also think there are times when even we ourselves don’t really know the “who I am” let alone expect others to follow through with the “accept us” part of that saying. How many times do we run after things in life to somehow placate a poor self-image, or compensate for a weakness we perceive EVERYONE MUST PLAINLY SEE? We also have the mental ‘tapes’ running in our heads that have been recorded into us by those who raised us, coached us, or wounded us. On top of this we have the barrage of impressions in advertising that try to mold us into the perfect body type, “normal” family, and current SHINY OBJECT that would distract us from our comparatively boring life.
Aren’t you glad we have the Holy Scripture given by the Creator to help set our identity crisis at rest?
Matthew 6:28
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
2 Corinthians 3:18 …as all of us reflect the Lord’s glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are being changed into his image with ever-increasing glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Philippians 1:6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his creatures who are created in Yeshua The Messiah for good works, those things which God had from the first prepared that we should walk in them.
There is truly One who does indeed accept us as we are. He is ever mindful of our frame and makeup and yet calls us to become who we were created to be. Yahweh is the only one worthy of being the Author and Finisher of us, our faith, and His desires placed within our hearts!
Shalom
