Welcome And Series Recap

Hello my friends and welcome to Everyday God for Your Every Day with Kathy, a space where we'll discuss real practical ways for life with God, especially for those days when life is hard, complicated, and messy. How do we apply biblical principles such as God's love, mercy, grace, and wisdom to our daily grind? Well, join me each week as we do just that together. So wherever you may find yourself today, please know that you are seen, held, accepted, loved, and never alone. So let's get to it. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Everyday God for your everyday. I am Kathy, your host. I think you're kind of used to that by now, right? You know it's me. So I find myself as a regimented person very difficult to kind of move away from saying that. As often as I have tried to, just doesn't feel right. So hopefully, as we do more of these episodes, I will start to relax maybe a bit and stop holding so tightly to my structure. But I hope that, you know, as we look at acceptance of others today, and as we've talked about all of the different things that we need, you know, that we should accept as we walk with God, that you guys are accepting me even in my little wackadoodle ways. So as we wrap up this acceptance series, let's talk about what we've covered thus far, right? Acceptance of God's love, which ultimately is the foundation of everything. Acceptance of our identity in Christ, who God says we are, acceptance of self, which we're gonna talk about that again today, which is incredibly important because if we do not accept all of who we are, it is near impossible or it's very challenging for us to really be able to accept others. And we're gonna talk about that today. So acceptance of God's grace, our grace plays a critical role in our accepting others as well, and acceptance of God's authority in our lives, acceptance of God's will. And then, of course, now the finale, acceptance of others. So this concept or principle of acceptance of others that we're going to really talk about during this episode is grounded in scripture. As I try, not I try, as everything that I do is. But there are nuances around word usage. But what I want us to really think about when we talk about accepting others, it's really where we recognize and acknowledge others for who they are, not as we would have them, not as we want them to be, not as we expect that they should be, but we're not fighting or denying the reality of who they are. It is living, coexisting with people who are different than we are, who may think differently than we do, who may see life differently than we do, without attempting to change them. It is acknowledging people, others, for who they are. So I want to talk about a few things. Like, why is accepting others important to God? Because it is. Why is it fundamental to being a Christ follower that we accept one another? Is this biblical? How do we accept others? And lastly, we wouldn't be human beings if we didn't look at like what's the benefit to accepting other people. All right, so let's get to it. So I want us to think about the concept of, okay, me living with people without attempting to change them. I want us to really marinate on that for a bit as we look at some foundational verses for today's message, because again, everything that we're going to talk about is grounded in scripture. How does God call us to do life with one another? Okay. Not only life with one another as members of God's church, but really how do we do life with those who are not believers, those who may not believe as we do, those who hurt us, those who are our enemies. What does Christ say about that? Okay. As we look at our foundational verses, two of them can be found in the book of Matthew. So Matthew 22, 39, and then Matthew 7, verses 1 through 5. And then we're also going to look at Romans 3, 23. Matthew 7, verses 1 through 5 is, of course, an excerpt of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount, right? So reading from the NIV from my Bible as I pull it up, it says, judging others. That's what it's that's what it's titled. Do not judge, or you two will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So if we look at this, Lord Jesus, our Christ, our Savior, is really telling us that we have no standing to judge others, that we ought to be focused on our own issues, our own sin nature. Because if we're busy judging other people, then we are in essence not paying attention to our own shortcomings. Okay. And then if I go to Romans 3.23, which says, for all, all, it doesn't say some, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So once we look at ourselves in earnest and acknowledge our own sin nature, then we truly cannot, in all good conscience, sit in judgment of others or think that we are better than the next person. So then we're gonna look at Matthew 22, verse 39. And this is when Jesus was being tested by an expert in the law and was asked, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus responded, Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind. And this is the first and greatest commandment. And then Jesus continued and said, The second is like it. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. So second, the Lord Jesus, God Himself, God's glory, God's grace in human flesh, says, second to loving God with all your heart, mind, and strength is to love your neighbor as yourself. God calls us to love, he commands us to do so. And I believe we one of the reasons that God calls us to love is because God Himself is love and God loves us desperately and relentlessly and just amazingly. And he wants us, as we are created in his image, to love one another. So we've discussed these. I mean, these verses are not foreign to anybody who's listened to any of our my other episodes, right? We discussed this during the grace episode, as well as accepting ourselves. We cannot love our neighbor until we love ourselves for who we are. I don't know if I ever thought about scripture as to why God said, you know, to love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, he could have just simply said, love your neighbor. So sometimes I think, like, oh, could it be that God already knows our penchant or tendency to be self-seeking, self-absorbed, and self-focused? Hmm, I'm talking about me. Or maybe it's because God knew that we would need to love ourselves first before we could even attempt to love someone else. So I've been really thinking about this concept of accepting others as I've been driving, as I've been, you know, kind of living my everyday life. I knew this episode was coming. And of course, you know, had good notes and planned on just, I think, just doing like a brief deep dive into it. And then thinking, well, it's pretty self-explanatory. I mean, if you followed the steps, then one should arrive, right, at the eventual acceptance of others. Except that it's neither that simple nor is it that neat. It is very nuanced, it's messy, it's difficult. I've found myself, you know, struggling with that. It goes against the grain of our flesh, of again, sin nature. It is messy and it exposes so many unconscious biases that we have, so many of our own deep insecurities, some which, you know, we've buried so deep that at least we thought long forgotten, right? So let's think about the questions that I asked earlier. Why is accepting others important to God? I think we've talked about the foundational verses and why that is. Why is it fundamental to being a Christ follower? Is it biblical? How do we accept others? And what's the benefit to accepting other people? I'm asking these questions again because these are questions that I really want you, as listeners, to ask yourselves. As I've asked myself the same question, as a Christ follower, as a woman of faith, how am I really at accepting others? So if we start with why is accepting others important to God and why is it fundamental to being a Christ follower? And of course, you know, is it biblical? Well, again, we just talked about it, and it's one of the greatest commandments. To love someone is to accept them. You don't have to understand them. We talked about this before. You don't have to approve of every single decision or every single thing in their lives. You just simply have to love them. So to love is to accept them. In addition, Romans 15 7 says, accept one another. Then just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. When we accept others, we're not only doing that because of our own good or even our own righteousness or simply because we're doing the right thing, but it glorifies God. It's important that as we walk with God and we are the recipients of God's love, that we are able, and recipients, by the way, of his acceptance into his family, into sonship. Remember, we've been adopted into sonship. We've talked about this, that we are willing to do the same for others. I had a conversation with someone earlier this week, and they were struggling about someone in their lives that they simply did not want to have a relationship with. And this person has attempted to reach out to them and they just like, listen, this person's been evil and I've want nothing to do with them. Listen, I get it. I get it. I've been in the same position, but I had to ask this question as I've asked it of myself. What are my expectations of God? Do I expect that God is going to forgive me for my sins for all of the times that I fall short of his glory? Which is, by the way, every day. Do I need for God to give me a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth chance, a seventh, hundredth, thousandth chance? Then if that is my expectation of God, I should not expect that I cannot extend the same to another. Now, I'm not saying that it's easy. And by the way, God doesn't expect us to do that on our own. His grace will help us to do it. But we at least have to be willing and are and we at least have to think about like, God, I know this is what you are asking of me. I'm gonna need your help to do this. We talked about this, I think it was last episode. In the Our Father, it says it, forgive me, my trespasses, as I forgive those who've trespassed against us. Because we should not expect, and and the Bible says it, scripture says it, if you do not forgive others, then you cannot expect that God will forgive you. So we really must think about this. And Jesus even said in John 13, 35, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. We're called to love others. I'm gonna keep stressing that to put their interest above our own. I have a deep belief that people want to be affirmed or validated, people want to be understood, and people want to be appreciated or valued. When we accept someone, we are in essence validating them. I don't need you to approve of me, but I just need you to acknowledge who I am and just accept me for who I am. And I've struggled with that my entire life. So there are multiple verses in the Bible which speaks to accepting others, to pray for one's enemies, to forgive, to not judge lest we be judged. We just looked at that. And there's of course the well-known biblical story of a woman accused of adultery, which can be found in John 8, verses 1 through 11, where the religious leaders they bring this woman who is caught in the act of adultery to Jesus to test him, demanding that she be stoned according to Mosaic law. And Jesus tells them, let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone, prompting her accusers to leave. And then Jesus then says, Who has accused you? And she looks, there's no one. And he says, Neither do I. And he tells her, sin no more. If we think about the conversations that we've had, right, about the fruit of the spirit, which we discussed in episode, the episode on grace, right? Which is found in Galatians 5, verses 22 through 23, which says, But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no laws, right? So if we think about that, when God is at work within us, if we are staying close to God, if we are staying close to the vine, who is Jesus, right, we ought to be bearing fruit. And that means that this should show in the way that we engage and interact with one another. Again, I'm gonna say it to love is to accept. So loving others, you know, it's it's goodwill towards others. Joy means, again, having gladness and your delight being rooted in, you know, in someone else's spiritual well-being. Even if I don't agree with someone, or if someone doesn't agree, opposes my own beliefs, especially as it pertains to my faith. What I am commended to do and what I am compelled to do is to want the same for this person. I am called to pray for them. There are so many verses that call us to be peacemakers, that as long as it is dependent upon you, that you are to live in peace with others. You know, when we think about forbearance, which in essence is patience, endurance, slowness to anger, it means tolerance under provocation. It means that we are to tolerate one another. If we think about kindness, I mean, I think ultimately that that speaks for itself, right? Kindness, compassion, being friendly. So self-control is having a sound mind, controlling our impulses and our feelings, controlling our own desires. When we accept others for who they are, where they are in their journeys, their struggles, then again, people will feel validated. I think most of us struggle with this concept of acceptance because we feel that acceptance is, oh, I'm condoning people's lifestyle, or I'm condoning their choices, or I'm approving them. So that's not necessarily true. I can accept where I am in my life. I can accept where I am in my career or whatever without approving or liking the circumstances. We've discussed this. Acceptance can simply be accepting things or people as they are. So I'm gonna take us back to the original serenity prayer. God, give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other, taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that you will make all things right. This prayer is asking or is seeking God to accept things with peace. In other words, Lord, help me to make peace with the things about people that I cannot change, with the things about myself that I cannot change. Help me to have peace so that I can accept others as I have accepted myself, and better yet, as you, Lord, have accepted me. So this starts with, I'm gonna tell you, it starts with accepting who you are, and then it goes with accepting those people that are closest to us. I once heard that God loves to do his work in us within the relationships and the people nearest to us. I've struggled sometimes, oftentimes, not sometimes, to accept those nearest to me, to accept the things that I can't understand about them, to accept the decisions that they make that I don't understand or agree with, and those things that I don't approve of. You gotta get off your moral high horse, or you gotta get off this misconception of yours that somehow you know better. I don't know better. It's absolutely crucial that we as members of Christ's church, as his followers, accept. We we need to accept others and ourselves. And I'm gonna focus on others that, you know, accepting others does not require agreement, but rather love, God's love more specifically. I don't have to approve or agree with one's lifestyle, with one's ideology, with one's traditions, with one's choices, with their spouse, their friends, their choice of career, their decision making, their problem-solving skills, the way they handle life, the way that they choose to raise their kids, or even the way that they worship, the way that they praise. I don't have to like what they do, but God calls me to accept that every human being, no matter how vile or how fundamentally I might disagree with their principles and their beliefs, that I accept that they are made in God's image. Imago Dei. That I accept them for who they are, where they are in their journey, that they may think that my beliefs are dumb. They might hate my loving God. By the way, they might hate the fact that I love a God who wants me to love them and who loves them despite their hatred or denial of his existence. But that's what I'm called to do. I am called to love, which means that I accept that I may not care for people, certain people, but I pray for them and wish the best for them. You know, I heard John Bevere recently say on a podcast that, you know, he didn't find freedom from an offense, from someone who offended him, hurt him, until he started by prompting of the Holy Spirit, until he started praying for them all that he wanted for himself. So think about that. Someone who's offended you, who's hurt you, that we are to pray all of the good things that we want for ourselves for them. Now, that doesn't happen in our own strength. That happens by the Spirit of God. You know, I remember one struggling to get over some deep hurts. And, you know, I really had a hard time. Like this person was daily demeaning me. And they were doing it out of hurt and anger. They were angry with me because I hurt them. I struggled to not lash out because if anybody knows me, my default is anger. Well, I guess my default was anger. I've been starting to see a really kinder, gentler me these days. But yeah, I I struggled with that. And I was going to therapy and I was really like, well, they're hurt. I'm trying to move on. And this person simply would not allow me to move on because they were angry and they were angry with me and they were offending me on a daily basis. So then I went to God and God said to me, I'll never forget that. You need to love this individual the way that I love them. Love them like Jesus. I remember, you know, really saying to God, like, Well, Jesus is Jesus, Lord. Jesus is God. Jesus can do a lot of things I can't do. It was challenging, but out of obedience, I did it. I would, you know, send them a friendly text and I would get pretty much an F you back. Everything, every good gesture was met by anger. I mean anger. And sometimes really offensive things were said to me. And it was hard. It was hard not to defend myself against that. It was even harder to ensure that I didn't turn others against this person as they saw how the how this person was treating me. I mean, God called me to accept them and accept where they were. At that moment, they were hurt. They were angry. I just didn't want to deal with it. I wanted to move on. But God's like, listen, you gotta accept that this person is angry and you still gotta love them. Whoa, was that hard for me? With each foul word that was sent my way, I met them with grace. With each angry thing, I met them with love. Whether it was patience that I showed, goodness, gentleness, compassion for understanding where they were and that they were hurt and that I had hurt them, forgiving all that they had said to me and their offenses, and practicing a ton of self-control. Putting my own feelings aside, subverting my own hurt, that's what I was called to do. Until eventually, I can't tell you whether it was months later or whatever, I can't tell you how many months later, I found that what had started out as acts of obedience, and quite frankly, it was challenging for me, difficult, hard, arduous, labor intensive. Okay, I don't know what what other synonym I can use, then it had all it had become organic. And I realized that it was God's grace at work in my life. So I get it that there are people are different. People are different. So I'm going to give examples of like how I have to accept others, and we're going to talk about others in our family, right? I have three kids that are different. They have different love languages, right? From me. I am an act of service all the way. Okay. You want to get to my heart. Clean the house, clean house. Anybody who knows people, they know that clean house or something, some act of service. That's also how I express my love. You know, that's my love language. But my children are different. You know, I have one who is a lot like me, but her love language is, oh God, affection. I am not an affectionate person. You know, I can do everything for her. I can clean her room. She'll appreciate it, but nothing beats a hug or a kiss from mom or several kisses or hugs. You know, she's my little bobby. That's what she wants. And I struggled a lot with that in, you know, for years. When they were little, it was much easier. But as they became kind of like tweens and teens, it was like me screaming, I don't like it. That is not the way that I show love. And her screaming, well, that's the way that I receive love. And recently, I would say in the last year, especially in the last six months, God has done this work in me where because I've accepted my children, I mean, by the way, different, I'm at different levels. I'm not completely there yet, but I've accepted that they're different. And I have to extend myself and I have to put their best interest above my own. I still communicate vastly, largely through acts of service. That's how I, that's how I know to mother and to nurture people. But I hug her a lot more. I kiss her. I have another one that it's words of affirmation. And so I do that. I'm intentional about it, purposeful about it. And then my third is, you know, she's definitely a quality time kind of girl. And before I'm one of those people that, you know, out of sight, out of mind, even when you're my kid, doesn't mean that I don't love you, doesn't mean that I don't think about you. But again, I'm not really an affectionate person. I'm in I'm a thinker, I can be incredibly pragmatic, which can come across as unfeeling. So she likes for you to text her or call her or just to like hang out with mom. And I honestly, being an introvert as well, I don't want to hang out with people for the most part. I don't. Even my kids. Um, but I've learned that especially as they're getting older, that's important to her. So I do it. We watch movies together. I sit next to her. She likes to hold my arms now. There are times where I'm like, please, please, please, just don't touch me again. But for the most part, they can see that I am becoming much more receptive and accepting of who they are. And in turn, they've extended that level of grace to me. So when I've made mistakes, when I've, you know, responded in a way that I shouldn't have, like I'm a problem solver. I have a lot of male energy. So when someone tells me their problems, my initial reaction is to fix it. So I go immediately into, okay, this is what we ought to do. Have we thought about this? Have we thought about that? When all that person may want is for you to listen. So sometimes I can suck at listening because I go immediately into fix mode. But now one of the things that I've learned to accept is that that's not well gonna be well received in that moment. And instead of being offended by it, I take a minute and I said, That's not what you wanted me to do, right? Okay, I'm just gonna sit. I was talking to a friend of mine and I was struggling this week because I'm finding it difficult just sitting in people's hardship. I I want to pray, I want to do something. And one of the things that I realize is that I'm uncomfortable with it. So I just kind of sometimes I just want people to just move on. I want to speed up the process because I'm uncomfortable with your discomfort and your suffering. So all of a sudden it becomes about me. I, you know, I struggled with that. And I'm like, God, like I just can't sit in the discomfort. I can't sit in my own discomfort. Sometimes I realize I'm I'm trying to speed stuff up, and that's how I be fabricating, you know, my mountaintop moments and why they crumble, in Tony Collier's words. So I have been working on that, actively working on it. And I will tell you, as my children have seen me struggle with acceptance of myself where I am in my current journey, as they've seen me vulnerable. And because I have been humbled by my own weaknesses and limitations, I've become more understanding and accepting of their own struggles and challenges. And as they have become more understanding and forgiving of mine, it's just, it's this beautiful cycle. So even though I still make mistakes in the way that I handle certain situations in our, you know, but in our home now, there's room for grace, for acceptance, grace for ourselves, grace for each other. And I'm praying that as, you know, we're practicing grace with one another, that in turn it will be grace for others and they'll be more accepting of other people. I had this conversation with my second, and she was like, Mom, you know, I'm like uncomfortable with certain people when, you know, they're like this, you know, whether it's whether they're depressed or they're dealing with a hard situation. And I listened to her. I didn't pass judgment and I said, Oh, honey, I get it. But I need you to think about something that in that moment, it's not about you. That we have to accept people, not only for who they are and how they might deal with situations, even though it might be contrary to how you would have dealt with the situation. It's not you. And I think a lot about, you know, acceptance stems from our expectations, right? It's it stems from the fact that we have these expectations of ourselves, these expectations of others that oftentimes the culprit of our inability or unwillingness to accept others. Our expectations are that, okay, well, this is how I would have dealt with this situation. I expect that this person would deal with it in the same way. Well, they're not you. I expect that because I did this, this person, no, uh, they're not you. Because I believe in God, it can make me not accept other people's views. Doesn't mean I have to agree with them. God calls for me to be loving. God calls for me to pray. How is Christ's light supposed to shine through me when I'm being busy not accepting other people or judging other people? And the more that I have become aware, you know, I was I was saying to my friend that, oh, this level of self-awareness and awareness of my environment, aware, awareness of the world is it's made me raw. I'm just feeling and I'm not comfortable with feelings. I've talked about this already. But I'm really truly convicted of my own weakness and my own sin nature. And each time that I, out of my used to be default, or still my flesh, when I want to judge someone else or say, well, I wouldn't have done it this way, I take a step back and I say, Who am I? Who am I to judge? Who am I to say that this is not the way that, you know, I would do it? Because the reality is I don't know where someone is in their journey. I don't know what God is working, I don't know what God is doing, and I don't want to be a hindrance to God's grace in someone else's life. Because here's the thing, guys. Remember what I said in the beginning. We can't judge because we are not in any condition to be judging anyone. So that means I can't approve nothing that you do. I'm not condoning. If I'm so busy concerned about, oh, I don't want anybody thinking that I'm condoning this person's behavior. Check yourself. Check myself. I can't condone anything. Because I have no room to condone anything. When I sit there and I'm like, I don't understand my kid because she processes things completely differently. Like I, you know, and I want to say what's wrong with this. I am convicted. Who am I to say that how someone else processes something is wrong? We're all different and we're all made in God's image. Let's start with that first. And we have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. So maybe if we all say, hey, we're all starting from the same spot, right? I don't listen, I'm not saying that there are those people that don't do things that are so, so just wrong, okay? Their behavior, they sinned, okay. They're just there are some evil people out there. I I'll say they're just some evil people out there. I'm gonna accept that. My my job is not to judge that, oh, what you've done or who you are is evil, so therefore you're gonna burn in hell. I I can't do that. That is not my role. That is not what I'm called to do. What I'm actually called to do is for to pray for that person. The more wretched they are, I'm called to pray for them because I have been a wretch. Grace, amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. We need to start with that. It doesn't mean it's I'm not calling any of us to feel shame or guilt. That's not it. I'm just calling us to judge ourselves rightly, correctly, which is to be humbled by the fact that we all have sinned, but yet we all are made in God's image. So if the next time someone irritates the crap out of you, or someone really annoys you, or someone offends you, just pray. Pray for them. That's what we're called to do. I'm starting to do that when I'm driving, because I'm telling you, if somebody wants to catch me, it's the driving. Driving is oof, a keel is heel. Oh my word. It is, it is, it is problematic for me. And I drive a lot more now than I used to drive. It's yeah, acceptance that listen, not everybody's gonna drive like me. And that oftentimes, if I'm being honest, they're not doing what I want them to do. So again, it's all about like this control and me thinking that I can somehow approve what someone else is doing. So when expectations are not met, just accept it. There's so much peace in that and accept our own weaknesses. Listen, I know that there's a very famous quote by Maya Angelou that says, When someone shows you who they are, believe them. It's often used like, when someone shows you who they are, believe them. I'm gonna take it a step further. I'm gonna say, when someone shows you who they are, not just believe them, but accept them. Because I think sometimes we believe them, and but yet we'd be like, oh, I want to change you. How many women, men, I'm not just gonna say women, but how many people get into relationships fully seeing who somebody is? Even believe in it, but then thinking, I can change them. I can change them. How many of us marry? We enter into a commitment, thinking that we can change someone else. How many of us as parents, oh my gosh, no matter what our kid does, we can't accept that they may not, you know, little Jimmy may not want to go to engineering school. Okay? He loves music. That's what he loves. Accept it. They don't want to go to your alma mater, accept it. They don't want to follow your career path or the career path that you have set for them. Accept it. Love them. Sometimes, even when they're on the wrong path, they're making the wrong decisions. Try saying, I love you, son, I love you, daughter. I don't, you know, I I don't understand what you're experiencing, I don't understand what you're going through. But I love you and I'm gonna pray for you. That whatever God means for you, that it'll happen. Like that's that's that's accepting others. That's accepting others. Accepting others in our own church group, in our own community, that you know what, I'm gonna accept that you are someone who does not believe in reading the Bible from the phone. I get that. I'm different. I I'm not gonna get a I can I can't get offended at that and let that be used as a way to divide us. And I can't sit there and try to convince you that, oh, it's great to use your Bible on your phone. That's just me. Right now, I have Bibles, hard copy Bibles, Bible that I had from the first time that I was saved, Bible that my mom gave me, Bibles that my mom had, that I have all of those. But I'm gonna be honest, I I am constantly on my phone reading my U version. I love that. But we have to start accepting that we're all not going to do everything like the other person. And if the church is going to really do what it needs to do, if the church is really going to be about the father's business, we have got to start. Accepting one another. If families are going to get back to doing the father's business to really not, oh my gosh, pushing away our children to the point that we push them away from God. We got to start accepting that they are going to make decisions that we don't agree with, that they're going to do things that we don't like, that they are going to process things differently. Oh my word, they are living in a different generation. That what worked for us may not work for them. We got to start accepting one another, folks. And it starts with me. It starts with accepting who I am, showing myself grace. It starts with accepting those that are closest and nearest to me, my family, my children, our spouses, our friends, our extended family members. Then it starts with accepting those in our church community. And then it starts with accepting strangers who may have different beliefs, different traditions. Then it starts with accepting sh just those strangers that definitely don't have your own beliefs, your your enemies, people at work who've hurt you, who scheme against you, who tell lies against you. Just accept them for who they are and start praying for them. Start praying all of the things that you want for yourself for them. And watch how God blesses you. So thank you. Thank you for joining me in our wrap-up of the Acceptance series. And I certainly hope that we've helped in discussing, you know, accepting others. And we're gonna pray as we normally do. Father God, thank you. Thank you for being such a wonderful father. Thank you for being such a wonderful God, for accepting us and loving us the way that we are. Thank you for accepting us, but not leaving us as we are, Lord. Thank you for loving us so much that you came to that you sent your only son to come and to save us, not to condemn us, but to save us. Father God, I pray for every person listening. I pray for every relationship in their lives. I pray for their families. I pray for those things, God, that they might be struggling with. I pray for their hearts, Lord. I pray for their lives. I pray for their circumstances, for the situations that they're facing. I pray, Father, that they would seek you, that they would seek you first, that they would go to you, Lord, and that they would lay it all at your feet. Father God, I pray that you would continue, Lord, that your grace would continue to work in us, not only to transform us, Lord, but to empower us, to strengthen us, to deal with the situations, the obstacles, the challenges, the trials and tribulations that will come our way. Father God, thank you for never leaving us behind. Thank you for your promises that are yes and amen. Thank you that because you have been such a good God, and because you love us, we can then turn love ourselves, Lord, in turn love each other. And it is in your holy name, Lord Jesus, our God and Savior, our redeemer, that I pray. Amen.