2015 10 25 ~ Acceptance

Acceptance We have many things in life. There are things we enjoy like special family and friends, unique toys, games, and great food. These are things we value and hopefully are thankful for. Name some things you enjoy. Do we always experience things we enjoy? Life seems to have a balance of things we enjoy and things we don’t. Are there things in your life that bother you or that you don’t like? For example, do any of you have chores? Do you enjoy cleaning your room or other parts of the house? Are you happy to have to go to bed for a nap or at bedtime? What about other people? Do others ever irritate you? There will always be things in our life we don’t enjoy. It can help us to know how to respond to things we don’t like. Parents, for example, don’t particularly enjoy cleaning dirty diapers! Do you think you would enjoy cleaning a dirty diaper? Probably not! Parents don’t enjoy it, but how do they respond? Do they get angry, and say mean things? No, even though they don’t enjoy the job, parents clean their baby with a cheerful heart. They know this is part of having a baby. If you want a baby…you are going to have to change diapers! They have accepted it. If you don’t enjoy cleaning your room, is it ok to just not clean it? Absolutely not! We all need to grow to a place where we do assignments we don’t enjoy. Have you ever seen someone doing a job they aren’t enjoying? How was their attitude? Usually, if we can tell someone is doing something they don’t like it means they have a bad attitude. They may be grumpy, stomping around the room, and being hateful to other people. Are you ever this way? Do you think Jesus ever did anything He didn’t enjoy? I am certain He did. How do you think He responded? Do you think He accepted His job and did it cheerfully, or do you think He was hateful and stomping around? I am certain Jesus did His work with a good attitude, just the way parents change a baby diaper. He knew He had work to do, so He did it! If this is how Jesus dealt with unpleasant things in His life, how should we respond to them in ours? We should aim to look just like Jesus. So, the next time you have to eat something you don’t like because it is the meal prepared for you, when you must do a chore, or when you must spend time with someone you don’t particularly enjoy being with, try to accept your responsibility. Don’t try to argue your way out, stomp around, or be hateful to others. Thank God for your assignment, and ask Him for ways to help you enjoy what you are doing. For example, God may give you creativity to make your chore into a game. If you are doing laundry you may pretend you are sorting and delivering mail. When you are doing schoolwork, you can pretend you are working in an office. You may make up silly songs while cleaning your room. If you are eating a meal you don’t enjoy, it may be time to eat cheerfully while focusing on thanking Jesus for all the meals you do enjoy! Life will always be full of things we don’t enjoy. Learning how to handle them with God’s grace is part of growing up well. When we accept the things we don’t like as just part of life, they don’t bother us quite as much.