Acceptance is a Two Way Street.

One of our most basic human needs is the need to be accepted.

We have all had a situation in our life (or more) where we did not feel accepted or loved and it sucked.

As much as it sucks for me to feel like I am not accepted, I still have trouble with accepting others at times. It does not make me a bad person but it is an area for me to grow in.

My acceptance problem is not any of the typical topics we think of: I do not care (in a good way) about your religion, sex, sexual orientation, race, gender or anything in the typical format.

My acceptance problem is with the way people think. When I am in a bad place, people that do not meet the expectations that I have set for them, I stop accepting them. I have stopped accepting people because they were not accepting enough. This may sound good, it is not. I do not accept people because they do not meet my level of acceptance, or to put it bluntly, they are not good enough for me. In a world where I want everyone to be accepting, I have failed where we need it the most. I have failed in things that I do not understand with people who could benefit from it the most.

As much as I could rattle everything I believe is wrong with the people I have done this to, the truth is it would not make anyone’s life any better, it would not make the world any better. All that it would do is further divide the gap.

Not everyone is like you and yes that is a good thing.

People from a small town may not see a lot of diversity, they are not filled with hate, they are experiencing something new. They do not understand it, not because they do not want to or because they are stupid but because they have no reference to understand it from. They spent their whole life, living a life they thought was normal and now there is a different way of life.

People that grew up in a city, are most likely used to diversity. When they get upset because everyone is the same race or religion, it is because it is not what they are used to.

What is normal to us, may be completely absurd to someone else and that is okay.

It is easy to accept those that you agree with, those that you see eye to eye with. The problem is that this creates a clique, where everyone that does not agree with you is not accepted, which is pretty funny if you think about it.

See people for their potential, not for everything that is wrong with them. If we focus on the negative, we will get more negative and it is a losing battle. Look inside yourself before judging others. What is it about the situation that frustrates you? Could the have a backstory you know nothing about? Real acceptance is when you can accept people completely, even with things that you do not understand or agree with.

It is easy to be mad at the people we do not agree with. They just do not seem to get it. True acceptance begins not with us accepting those we do not agree with and seeing that they are human too.