Rejection and Godliness

I got another agent rejection this week. If you're not a writer, that may not sound like much. But, what if:

Your boss rejected every suggestion you made.
Your husband said every meal you cooked wasn't exactly what he wanted.
Your wife said she preferred something other than the gifts you gave her.
Your children said they wished you would be more like Suzie's mother.
Your mother said she wished you would be more like your sister (or brother).

Get the picture?

Rejection in any form hurts. Some of you have experienced rejection first hand and understand how devastating it feels.

Right before my father died, I flew from California to Mississippi to see him. My step mother informed me (in the presence of my father) that he said he was going to will everything to my brother. REJECTION!

Did I care that my brother would get everything? Absolutely not. I would have maybe been able to buy a couple of dinners out with my share! The thing that hurt was my feeling of rejection by my father. A father who had killed my mother as I stood watching. A father whom I had still prayed to come to know Christ. A father whom I had tried to honor as the scripture said.

Most all of us face rejection of some kind in our lifetime. Since that is true, we need to handle rejection correctly. Becoming bitter, hating the person who rejects us, being unwilling to forgive them are NOT the ways to do it.

Christians are told to love the unlovely, to forgive over and over and over, to think about how much Christ has forgiven us and forgive based on that truth. That's the right way to deal with rejection.

Forgive. Love. Consider how much you've been forgiven. If all of us live out the truths of the Bible we say we believe, our lives will be more peaceful and more Christ like. Let's try it!

Hoping to receive rejection in a godly manner, Gloria