Sailing Safely to the Shore of Self-Acceptance

Every woman and man is embattled

With getting past their own burdening self-neglect

Getting free of a life that sees them rattled

Means they must find their own key to self-accept.

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Every woman and man is embattled.

Life stretches all of us beyond our emotional limits, but no situation stretches us beyond our capacities. We are betwixt and between – we are bent into foreign shapes by day, but we are restored by night. We are bent, but we are not broken. And the biggest way we are embattled is before the court of our own being. Where we struggle for self-acceptance, we are all the more embattled psychologically and life is harder.

Every woman and man must get past their burdening self-neglect.

This is difficult to say, but it’s nonetheless true. We, when we are pushed, all have a breaking point of self-neglect where we will destroy ourselves if we are not careful. Fortunately, God has made life not so intimately destructive that we can easily succeed unless we really intend on harming ourselves.

Self-neglect is perhaps our biggest, most oppressive nemesis. If we will get past self-destructiveness then we can be our own best and fairest advocates.

Every woman and man needs to get free of a life that intends that they be rattled.

Life will rattle us. There is nothing more certain. And though we might be rattled by many things, we can disentangle ourselves from the resonating consequences. It’s okay to deal with the rattling circumstance in truth before reconciling it to God with power to push on into a steadying gait. With courage we steady our ship. We do so through self-acceptance.

Every woman and man must find their key to self-accept.

There is no common way to self-acceptance, just like there is no ordinary workload in getting there. Some have more work to do than others, but the key is the willingness of the search – to start out believing God wants us to be free of self-rejection.

Those who ask are answered. Seekers will find. Those who knock will have the door opened to them. (Matthew 7:7)

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What God wants for us most of all – besides our acceptance of his Son, Jesus – is for us to experience true self-acceptance, which is God’s acceptance. This is the beginning and basis of the abundant life that can accept the truth notwithstanding reality’s situation. Joy, hope, and peace are all available continually.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.