I look around and read the news, watch and listen. Yes we have made progress and I pray we will continue to make leaps and bounds when it comes to accepting others just the way they are : It doesn't matter if it does not look like us or have different ideas and thoughts. I like to believe we have matured when it comes to colour , sexual orientation , religion , and so forth.
Here's the thing, when you accept yourself exactly the way you are and have self-love it is so much easier to accept others for themselves. I know how I felt about myself had a direct effect on how I saw others. I used to be so critical of others and supper critical of myself. If nothing I do is good enough how will I see what others do as good enough. I also used have a lot of different beliefs. Thankfully I have grown so much in this area.
There's a story I love to tell that I think explains it best. One day a little girl asked her mother why she cut the wings off the chicken before she cooked it. She said I don't know my mom does it and I never thought to ask her. Let's call grandma, so when she asked her grandma she said I don't know it was something my mother did and I never thought to ask her. Let me give her a call and find out. So when they asked her great grandmother she said well the pan I had was too small and it didn't fit so I have to cut the wings off it to fit it in the pan.
Sometimes , we continue to have a belief because it was passed down from generation to generation forgetting that life changes so much . We are learning new ways to do things and maybe the things we are exposed too challenge our beliefs and maybe even our values. It's good to take a look at them once in a while to see if they need some up dating. I know when we were raising our children what worked for one child did not always work for the other child. So do you punish the child because they learn differently. My answer would be NO of course not, I learned to make adjustments in my approach to get the results I wanted.
We think we should all fit into the same mold , but thank God we don't . Our world would lack colour, diversity, creativity, and so much more. We are all here for a purpose, respect each person's life choices. Unless it has a direct impact on your life or causes harm to others , embrace everyones uniqueness. We all breathe and have a heartbeat, for that reason alone is good enough to accept others. It's funny in a way because each and everyone of us is somehow connected. We all just want to be loved and accepted for who we are not someone else's expectations of what we should be. I love learning about other people's culture, how they live, what they eat, their customs. You can learn so much from others when you are open to it, and maybe you will see something that is something you want to adopt into your life and how cool is that....learning and growing in our own way. Give the gift of acceptance and see not only the effect on your life but how it touches others.
