Accepted By You

Do you accept yourself? Are you accepted by you?

No large painting or detailed sewing project is completed in one day. It takes time and contemplation. It’s an ongoing process with much effort involved.

It’s the same with us. We won’t be where we want to be in one day. Don’t give up because the process takes time – that’s why it’s called a process. It takes time, effort and energy.

We’re not a drive-through delivery. We’re more the slow-cooker.

Be patient with yourself. Allow yourself time to learn new things, to grow and develop. Time will not speed up or slow down.

Think of all the things we like that take time to be the best: sauerkraut, sourdough bread, pickles, marinades, wines, curing time for concrete, paint finishes, molten glass and metals to cool, bird eggs to hatch, water to boil, green beans to can, clothes to dry, packages to arrive, oceans to cross, fish to catch, flowers to grow…

We humans are the most complex of God’s creation, and he said were his best work. Why do we think we are unacceptable and slow and clumsy. We are not living a futile life. It is a valuable life. Accept this about yourself. I am an unfinished person, on a journey, hoping to be the right kind of person for where I am. With God’s help I will achieve what is in store for me. I will be at peace with myself, not get upset with myself and in the meantime help others where I can.

Will you accept yourself today?

Don’t Give Up, Get Up!

It’s so easy to give up. All you have to do is do nothing! What more could you do?

But the law of sowing and reaping says that if you sow watermelon seeds, you’ll get watermelons, if you plant apple trees, you’ll get apples, and if you plant nothing, you’ll get nothing.

There’s a certain something about working for what you get that has a way of rewarding you that nothing else can. No free handout, no check from the relatives feels quite as good as obtaining it by your own two hands! God said He would bless the works of our hands, so we do the work, and He will bless and prosper it, to cause increase so our needs will be met…whatever need it is that needs to be done or had at the moment, whether it’s getting the bed made, your garage swept, your closet cleaned, or your  resume updated.

Of course, the Bible says, “the poor you shall always have with you”,  yes, there are some who are unable to help themselves for one reason or another and we need to help them, and feel for them, and pray for them, but for the rest of us, we can be confident that whatever God has given us capabilities to do, He will bless them and provide for us through them, and even have left over to help meet the needs of others….remember the story of the little boy’s lunch of fish and bread that Jesus prayed over and divided to feed not just one small boy, but over 5000 men, plus women and children!  And then they had baskets and baskets of food left over. Jesus was not stingy! Jesus did this twice to prove He cares about people, their hunger, their needs, their lunch, as well as their spirit.

If we can get a handle on how much Jesus really does love us, not only in word, but in deed, it will revolutionize our thinking and we won’t be among the ‘giver-uppers’, we’ll belong to the ‘get-uppers’!

Because if God will help us and grant us success, we just won’t want to give up. Once we get moving and start seeing good fruit developing in our lives, and progress being made by our own two hands, we won’t want to remain seated any longer!

Let the excitement begin!!!