Acceptance

Here's a copy of the post I did for my Faith Formation page today.  Warning: content is religious- so if that turns you off- then skip.  Think that it is also inspirational, so if that turns you on, read on.

I promised my kids that if I had some thoughts from the daily readings that I would pass them on- so here's what I wrote:

Here is a link to the readings from today:
September 13, 2012 Readings

Here's the thing I never really noticed before- it's in the gospel:

"Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."
Luke 6:37-42

It really hit me that what this was saying was that if you want God's gifts in abundance, then you have to give God's gifts in abundance.  And of course, we know that the greatest of all God's gifts is love.  Another thing that I was reading today was talking about how all that we crave as human beings is acceptance- and that total and complete acceptance that we all crave comes from God.  It also talks about The courage of self-acceptance because if we good enough for God, then we should be good enough for ourselves.  That was another message that hit home.  The line that really hit me there was 

"I cannot be more demanding than God, can I". 

 And of course, I think that I am- a lot!  We probably all are- because we can see all that we could be and aren't- but God sees that too and loves what we do- which is better than doing nothing at all.

So let us go out today, giving God's gifts in abundance- and remembering that the greatest gift is accepting others as they are, knowing that God is accepting us as we are- with all our faults and imperfections- and that the more that we accept others as they are- the more that we will be accepted as we are.