Humans long to be accepted
- Kyle Snyder: Live on Purpose
- October 21, 2018
- 1147
Everyone wants to be accepted by someone at times. They want to be accepted by a group, a club, peers or a college. They may want to be accepted in their job by a co-worker or their boss. At worst they may feel like they have to gain acceptance from their parents or even God. They may not even accept themselves.
As humans we long to be accepted, to feel that high that comes with knowing people like us who accept who we are. We don’t like to be judged, and we all know there is way too much of that going on, so what a relief it is when we can be ourselves for once around other people.
Sadly too many people are willing to abandon who they are, just for a little acceptance. Being accepted by others out-trumps who they are as a person. If they need to lie in order to be accepted into the fold, they will. If it calls for them to turn their back on their friends, they are fine with that.
It might take money to get some love from a person or a group. How much will it take? It may call for us not to spend as much time with our family. They will understand our new friends mean a lot to us.
The list goes on for miles, and all we are doing is lying to ourselves about why we are ready to abandon all common sense for some acceptance from people who we mistakenly think we need approval from.
We might have other people’s acceptance, but the bottom line is do we have our own acceptance of ourselves? We need other people to tell us we are good enough to be loved by them.
There is no loving of oneself. We must be told if we are worthy to be loved or not. Why do we think teenagers go to a drinking party or try a hit of an illegal drug? If they act in such way, they will be in with the “in crowd.” We all know what being in with the “in crowd” can mean to a teenager.
As adults our attempts at being accepted change into driving a flashy car, living in a big house, having a high-paying job and one or more degrees to our name.
We can have it all, but if we don’t accept ourselves, it doesn’t do us any good. Having a whole lot of toys won’t make us happy. Having to put on a mask in order to gain acceptance by other people won’t fulfill us one bit.
In the end we won’t be able to keep it up forever. Eventually our mask will get old and start to fall apart. It takes hard work to keep it up, and we will run out of gas. The whole problem is we can’t accept ourselves, and we want so badly for other people to accept us. Then we know we are OK.
For years I was embarrassed by not having a college education. I thought people would look down upon me for not having one. When asked about college, I told people I’m not going now but someday hopefully, and that quickly changed the subject.
I found some free college courses online from good colleges. All you had to do was listen to the college lectures. That was it. I felt like that was the only chance at getting a college education I would have.
I told people what I was doing, and many of them thought that was great, that I was getting a college education. Some mistakenly thought I was in college, even though I tried to explain how it was. I felt great hearing the praises of other people, but I gave up because I was only fooling myself, and it wasn’t worth it.
We need to accept what God says and thinks about us. He made us and loves us with all of his heart. He hates our sin but is always willing to forgive and accept us when we ask. We don’t need to act a certain way in order to be accepted by him. We just need to come to him and start letting him change us.
Let him call the shots in your life and feel his warm embrace. He will guide you to new people who will accept you just the way you are.