ACCEPTANCE OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE

 The Acceptance of life, both the good and the bad , is necessary for us to experience  peace. Included in that, is the acceptance of our past and our present. That is a huge undertaking. It is never done quickly. It requires self-reflection, honesty, courage, and our processing the positive and the negative, the pain and the ecstasy, what is ours to own and what is not ours to own, and a belief in a power greater than ourselves. We will vacillate between rejecting circumstances or accepting them. We will struggle with what we want and what we have to live with. We will fight to get the ideal and we will have to make do with what is. We will experience tears of frustration; anger at others, ourselves, and God; and we will grieve what is lost, what we never had, and what will never be. We will feel like we are drowning, and some times we will convince ourselves we are dying. In a sense that will be true. Some times we have to die to self in order to be reborn. We will not like it nor will we embrace it, but when it is all over and we get to the other side, hopefully we can come to understand it and accept it. Sometimes there will be no options and no escape.There will only be what the current situation is.

Richard Vincent wrote: ” We cannot change anything until we are willing to accept reality as it now presents itself to us. Acceptance does not mean you endorse inappropriate or wrong behavior. It allows you to be peaceful and know the difference between things you can improve and things that are the way they are.” We learn to become patient with God, ourselves, and our circumstances. We learn from our limitations, our weaknesses, and our strengths. There will be resources available to us and we will need to accept the fact that all of us need help at one time or another.  If God wants for a situation to change or to happen, He will make it happen at the time and the place He chooses. Life is not fair. We do not have the power to make it so, but we can control our attitude towards whatever happens. Sometimes we will learn that good can come from bad situations.

We will find in the long run, that the more acceptance we can develop for God’s will for us; the more acceptance we can have for the differences that exist in others; and the more we learn to accept ourselves and life’s circumstances, the more peaceful we will feel. We will experience love and a new joy in living. We will grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Yu/stan/kema