Growing up in a military family, we were constantly being moved. Missouri, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, Germany, etc. My mother and I counted one time. I had 25 different addresses in the first 15 years of my life. I remember being situated for two weeks, then being told to grab your things. Time to move. It was actually an exciting lifestyle. Everyone around us was doing the same thing. That’s just what we thought was normal.
It really wasn’t until we moved into the civilian world that I began to feel unaccepted. The first time I remember that was in Colorado. Although I tried and tried, I wasn’t accepted. I think it was because we lived off base while we were there. I didn’t relate to the civilian families. The second time I felt that, was when we moved back to Missouri. My father had been medically discharged due to leukemia. We were no longer living in the military environment. So we moved to Carthage, Missouri. Near my mother‘s family. Let’s just say that small-town clicks are hard to break into. Eventually, I was welcomed. It took a couple years. I was welcome, but…I’m not sure I was truly trying to fit into the crowd as “me”. It’s hard to look back at that time in my life and determine if I was being myself or not.
But just imagine with me for a moment. What must be like to constantly try to gain acceptance by others? No matter what you do, you are not welcome. No matter how you treat others, you are not welcome. You don’t meet their expectations. Although you try, and try, and try. It’s never enough. There are people going through that all the time. It is unfortunate. What we must realize is that we will only feel true personal satisfaction when we find our identities in God. His love for us will never waiver. We will always be welcome. So today let’s focus on God. Let’s pray to God. Let’s surrender to God. Let’s find our identities in God. And let’s feel welcome and have a real sense of personal satisfaction.
