Fighting for acceptance!

I've realised something. We spend too much time fighting for acceptance!! Let me explain...

I have spent my whole life fighting to be accepted...I'm an Officers/Pastors kid...I've moved around alot compared to an average person. I have been to 4 different primary schools and 3 different high schools. The longest I've spent in any one school was 3 years. That's a lot of schools! Especcially for a kid growing up who wants stability and the same friends. Fortunately I still ended up ok...I think ;)...I guess that's another topic for discussion! hehehe...but it taught me alot...it really did! I learnt how to make friends and how to be more outgoing etc. Although I also learnt a little about trust too. Because I've moved around so much I tend to meet people and trust them straight away...and let me tell you, I've been hurt and stomped on SO MANY TIMES trusting people!! I won't stop loving people but I will be careful about how much I put out there...thats for sure! However, despite being outgoing, I also spent ALOT of time fighting to be accepted...not being myself but trying to fit in with everyone to be accepted...smoking 40 cigarettes a day...drinking and getting smashed lots...getting with guys coz it was wat everyone else was doing...but being used and in cases abused...so its not like it made me feel any better! None of it was real! I thought it would make someone love me...but it didnt...

Anyway...I realised that I've never felt content with who I am. I'm not thin and, lets face it, I'm not exactly Miss Universe! I'm not the smartest person and I don't have the greatest sense of humour! I've always felt inadequate and felt that I needed to be all of those things...thin, beautiful, smart, funny...etc...and basically everything else that the media tells you you have to be! I've always thought that's why I have such bad luck with men and why I either don't attract them or I end up with the ones who hurt me...I've always thought that I could be better than I am!! But it's all been superficial stuff!! Like the way I look...I can't stand the way I look...but you know what? Jesus loves me and He made me the way I am...looks and all...for a purpose!!

I have realised that I have wasted TOO MUCH time fighting for acceptance from the world...which will fade away and die...instead of thinking about how my amazing and ETERNAL Saviour, Jesus Christ, loves me SO much and how He created me the way I am for a reason and loves me the way I am!! He's even gone ahead of me and made someone and has prepared someone for me who will love me and treat me like a princess...and someone that I can love and treat like my prince!! hahaha...cheese central huh? hehehe...but SO true!!

But apart from all of that, if I am going to fight for acceptance why am I bothering to fight for the worlds acceptance when they're so messed up...instead of fighting for GOD'S acceptance who is perfect in every way? Well, here's a simple answer! I don't need to FIGHT for God's acceptance...all I had to do was ask for it and it was already there...I just had to receive it...and I did that! I've accepted God and Hes accepted me!! So, I have no reason to worry or to be fighting for anyone elses acceptance! When I insult myself and my looks etc then I am really insulting God...cause He made me this way!! Warts and all...hehehe!

So, why do we care so much about the world and their opinions? Why do we let people shut us down and effect us so much? What does God say about acceptance? In John 15:15-16 it says:

"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."

Hows that for acceptance? Jesus CHOSE you! Jesus CHOSE me! He has appointed us to do great things and to be great people! He says that whatever we ask in the His name the Father will give us! He doesn't just call us 'servants' with Him as our Master...he calls us FRIENDS!! He's our friend!! He's accepted us more than anyone will ever accept us! Man, you wanna talk about real acceptance? Look back to John 15:9 & 13.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you...Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

He laid down His life for us! We cursed Him, we spat on Him, we disgraced Him, we hated Him, we mocked Him, we broke His heart!!! Yet He still loved and accepted us so much that He laid down His life for us!! Now that's real acceptance! We can be the biggest so called 'loser' in the world and He would still accept us! We could be the most overweight person in the world and He would still accept us! We could be the worst person in the world and He would still love and accept us!

If its real acceptance you want, look no further! Its available in Jesus Christ!! Have YOU accepted HIM?

Lets fight for people to accept Christ so they will share in His acceptance of them!!

Your sister in Christ

FIGHTING FOR THE CAUSE!!

Jodi