Acceptance

It's been about a month since school started back, and with that comes the realization that I will not be teaching this semester. This does not come from lack of effort, but from something that I have absolutely no control over. Now that I've typed it out for the whole world to see indicates that I've reached a critical point in this matter:

Acceptance.

I believe it is critical in all areas of your life to learn to accept. Dictionary.com defines acceptance as "the act of assenting or believing." To concur. To believe. To accept.

This is kind of like how in those meetings they say the first step is admitting you have a problem. In other words, you are accepting yourself for you who are. And I think that is applicable here. There are two main things that I've learned about when dealing with this issue:

1. Admit who you are. This is the base of acceptance. Like I said earlier, when you admit who you are, then you can begin to accept who you are. You say things like...

I am unemployed
I am a drug addict
I am unable to have a baby
I am a liar
I am emotionally or physically abusive...

And you begin to see that when you learn the truth about yourself, then you might not like it. Which is why the next step is so important.

2. Do something about it. Take actions to fix your problem. This may mean...

Finding temporary employment in a job you don't love
Going to meetings or finding a therapy group
Researching various options to having kids, like adoption or foster parenting
Reconnecting with God to learn that the Truth will set you free
Learning about your past and finding better ways to express anger or disappointment...

Step 2 is hard. It may be harder than Step 1...I don't know. I'm not quite there yet.

How do you define acceptance?