Focus on Acceptance…

Dear Lord; Happy Monday Father!  First off, I want to thank You for another lovely weekend with my family and friends.  Date night with my wonderful wife Shannon on Saturday night was a great way to end the week, and although I ended up “under the weather” on Sunday, I was Blessed in that my family made sure I had the quiet time I needed to rest and recuperate.  I certainly wasn’t as productive as I had originally planned on being, but the downtime did help us all to recharge our batteries for the week ahead.

Today Lord, I want to delve further into my Focus Word (Accept) for the year and how it’s already affected my thoughts and actions.  It’s amazing to me, but since You placed that word in my heart I find it jumping into my head quite regularly.  For example, I had a situation this weekend where I was extremely uncomfortable with the way someone was acting in a public situation.  They weren’t doing anything wrong per-se, but it made me feel awkward all the same.

“You need to Accept them for who they are” I heard in the back of my head.

Fair enough.  As I said, they weren’t doing anything wrong and they certainly weren’t hurting me in any way.  I realized I had just taken it upon myself to feel uncomfortable at the way they were behaving, and was letting it affect my disposition.

Therefore, today’s statement of focus from my experience this weekend is :

I need to Accept that God has made each of us an individual who is unique and special.

Now please understand Father, this doesn’t mean I won’t stand up against people doing something morally or ethically wrong, or not confront evil wherever I see it.  I simply need to have more flexibility when dealing with differences in how Your Children act and interact with others.  You’ve made us all wonderfully individual and unique, and I’m going to work on celebrating those differences more.  Amen.

~Phather Phil