Accepting Our Present (and Past) Selves Can Be Hard
When Julissa heard her secret crush tell her at age 14, “You sound like a white girl,” she took it as a compliment in her Texas high school.
But as a Latina, Julissa later learned that sounding white was the wrong goal. She has since learned to embrace her Mexican heritage as well as her American roots, not caring how she sounds to anyone else.
I’m currently reading Julissa Arce’s memoir, You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation. I’m learning a lot from her about the struggles for fair treatment among the Latinx community in the United States.
But as I read, I’m also reminded of something else connected to the whole human race, whoever we are, regardless of where we were born or where we live now:
Accepting ourselves as we are can be hard for anybody.
With or without outside opposition.
Additionally, accepting who we used to be can also be hard. As we age and grow into our fuller selves, we don’t always appreciate our past selves. We can regret things we once said or did or believed.
The famous quote attributed to Maya Angelou rescues me on those days when I time-travel back to an earlier, not-so-good version of myself:
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
We’ve all made mistakes. We’ll all continue to make mistakes.
But if we’re still trying, still growing, still loving, we’re on the right road. We’re doing better.
Accept that.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
There’s so much grace in what you are describing—which makes sense because God has so much grace toward us, his sinful and struggling children. This is the best medicine for all my cringing over past failures.
I appreciate your post, Lisa, and thank you for hosting the link-up! Many blessings to you and yours.
As the Apostle Paul said, we need to forget what lies behind and press on to the upward call in Christ. But it can be challenging at times.
So much to think about from this post–on so many levels. As always, thanks for that.
This can be looked at from so many views from our lives. Who we were, where we’ve been, who we are now and where we’re going. I once had a therapist tell me that I’m not that old person, I’m today’s person. Yesterday’s person in all my faults and failures and lessons learned, even the hard ones have made today’s me. And it wasn’t until I began to mature in Jesus that I could see that. And I can’t wait to see where he takes me as I age and mature in Him. It’s something isn’t it, how we can get caught up in societies lies then be so surprised by God’s truth about who he says we are in Him. Lisa, this is a wonderful message.
Visiting today from G&T
Such good advice! I’m doing better. I’m so glad God takes us from glory to glory – that we grow into better!
I’m so thankful we have the opportunity to grow, mature, and become more loving, kind, and accepting of ourselves and others, Lisa.