YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!

"I am good at walking away. Rejection teaches you how to reject." - Jeanette Winterson

Steven was a young man that felt the call of God on his life. He came from a really close family. He finished his college and then went off to seminary. After finishing seminary he came back before going to his first church. He visited with all of his relatives for about a week. He stopped by the church and talked to his hometown Pastor. The Pastor asked him if he would like to preach this Sunday. He felt honoured and agreed. Sunday morning came and after days, of preparation he stepped up behind the pulpit looked out at the congregation of friends and relatives and started to expound the knowledge that he had learned. Well, his young niece, Kathleen, about six years old - stepped out into the aisle and put her hands on her hips - her left foot out in front of the other - her head cocked to one side - then she said in a very loud voice for her age. “Uncle Michael, You don’t know what you are talking about!”

On this burning subject of rejection; we have left out a category of people even though we have considered being rejected by groups, categories and classes of people we can relate with easily. We haven't talked about toddlers. Everyone's carrying a cute little baby, you reach out to the baby too, but it refuses your gesture. That's rejection, it's hard to handle from anybody - but from a six year old it is really tasking.

What happens when we get rejected by people far younger than than we are; maybe a little 6 year old niece or nephew? Do we fall and die or laugh over it? Yes, that's what we should learn to do when our peers or society reject us - laugh over it!

For anyone dealing with rejection, it is frequently not what was done, but how it was done, what was said, and how the entire situation played out that ultimately results in that sense of unworthiness. To overcome feeling rejected, you must detach yourself from these memories of your experience and instead attach yourself to the reality of your unknown potential. Understanding the mechanisms of rejection and knowing that it is never, warranted or earned are the most fundamental keys to safeguarding your self esteem and sense of self worth.

Friend's, like most of us would laugh over being rejected by a child; when we stretch our arm to carry them, so also we should consciously and literally learn to laugh over rejection from others. This has to be a choice. You have to make a choice about how you are going to understand the messages of rejection you receive everyday, and how you are going to, or not going to, integrate these messages into your psyche.