You are accepted.

"So many of us have believed that we need to labor and perform for identity, so that we might be accepted. But in the Kingdom, we start off accepted.

- Beni Johnson.

We all get these pictures and ideas of what we can do to be accepted. Maybe not as just a mom but also a Daughter, wife and friend or even as a blogger. I know as a recovered  people pleaser I certainly had those lists of what I needed to do to earn love and acceptance and I still find myself doing that from time to time but God in His mercies and Fathership reminds me often saying "Acceptance, it's already yours so stop doing all these things to get it". 

Sometimes we think that maybe I have to wake up early in the morning  before the kids so that God will love me more. Maybe I should pray over more people so that God will favor me.  

Or I should lose/gain weight or work harder at my homemaking so that my husband might love me.

Or maybe if I didn't do ___ as often I'd be a better mom and my kids would love me.

Or maybe if I had all these new brands, or a bigger and nicer house or got more creative with my website I'd get more followers.   

All these and more have crossed through my mind more than once in my lifetime and sometimes they still do but it shouldn't. 

My worth, my identity and my acceptance should belong to Jesus and only Jesus.
 Not in my home, not in my husband, not in my children, not in all the blessings God has given me as a daughter and certainly not in followers but in only Christ. 

We labor, we raise our children, we love our husbands and we seek first the Kingdom of God not so that we might be loved.. We do those things because we already are loved. 

 We love because he first loved us. - 1 John 4:19

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." 
- Romans 15:7

Mamas. Sisters. Friends. I encourage you today to do your best. To spend time with Jesus. To thrive. But not so that Jesus might love you more Because He can't possibly love you anymore or any less than He does now. right now. Just as you are. I encourage you to do these things not to be loved but because you already are. 

 

Heather Leigh is the founder of Arrows and warriors online ministry. She is firstly a daughter of God and loves meeting with Him early in the morning before her little arrows wake up. She is married to her best friend Leon and together have two little girls Evelynne and Liya.

Heather loves the color pink, all things coffee shops and coffee, tea parties and dress up with her girls and going on adventures and exploring through the eyes of her children as they show her glimpses of God's Kingdom.