Day 113, Year 1

Self-Acceptance to Truly Understand Ourselves

“The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way.” (Proverbs 14:8a NKJV)

As mentioned yesterday, we need to discern the path we are now walking on. However, in some regions, there is an unhealthy phenomenon where peer pressure and social expectations are causing some people to live in a state of psychological repression. These people’s self-understanding and life purposes are greatly influenced by distorted valuations and evaluations of those around them. Meanwhile, they are deprived of a natural acceptance of themselves. But the very first point of self-understanding is to accept ourselves unconditionally. If we have no unconditional self-acceptance toward ourselves, there will never be any genuine self-understanding, and we will fall into a state of avoiding or miscapturing ourselves. Anyway, deviations or escapisms arise when we understand ourselves apart from God’s words and judgments.

Starting from adolescence, people often discover that certain likes and dislikes, hobbies, and choices that emerge naturally in their lives are usually closely tied to genetics, education, family, and social trends. Self-acceptance means first accepting these natural emergences. From there, we could seek understanding so as to discern whether the path we are walking is right. But if we cannot acknowledge the bad things within us first, how could we uproot them? Thus, the second point of “understanding his way” is to discern what we have received from parents, teachers, elders, friends, societies, etc., with the Lord’s help. We should keep, strengthen, or transform the good while uprooting the bad.

As mentioned above, a part of our “way” is shaped by the education we receive since childhood. Of course, modern education has its advantages. However, one problem is that teachers always treat pupils like pets, using rewards and punishment to shape them into the model desired by those in authority, rather than what God expects. Thus, seeking human rewards while fearing human punishment, idolizing the authority figures before them, rather than fearing God’s punishment or desiring His rewards, causes many to drift away from the Christian faith. Hence, the third point in understanding the source of our path is to discern and even unlearn the education we have received. For the good, keep them, strengthen or transform them with the Lord’s help; for the bad, repent and rely on the Lord to uproot them. We could confess and repent for accepting the wrong educational content, or even for viewing ourselves as animals, and resolve to become the precious persons God sees us as!

Reflection questions:

1) Which aspects of your life, such as parents, teachers, elders, friends, and societies, have had a greater influence on you? Which influences have fostered your faith in Jesus, and which have hindered your faith from growing?

2) What do you consider your most fundamental problem in understanding your way? How do you want the Lord Jesus to help you? Finally, please pray for your understanding of the unique way of life.