The Pain of Rejection:
Rejection is a part of life, but it hurts. However, does it have to be apart of life?
Is it a must that for one to find acceptance, they must first experience rejection?
Or can rejection in some cases be more harmful than good?
Yes, rejection can be a good thing in some cases. Sometimes, we are writing a book
and then it comes to the point of submitting our manuscript to a publisher.
We wait and wait and wait ever so patiently (Or not! It’s hard to wait for an answer
sometimes!) and then we get the letter. We open it hoping that our manuscript
was accepted yet we read it and find out it was rejected. We are heartbroken
and mourn the loss of “our baby”, our writing that we really wanted published
by this publisher. Months pass and sometimes even years and we finally
get the letter we were hoping for: our book was accepted after years
of getting rejection letters!
While it very difficult to accept rejection, perhaps through the example
of our manuscript getting rejected, we learn that maybe the publisher
we thought was perfect was not the best one after all.
However, rejection is not always helpful. For example, rejection can come in multiple
forms particularly when some people reject families with special needs children.
And that kind of rejection hurts too because all they want is to be accepted.
It is common for special needs families to experience rejection.
But perhaps that kind of rejection can be lessened. Maybe, if there was more
acceptance there would be less rejection. Perhaps, if there was more awareness
of what special needs families went through, there would be greater acceptance.
Special needs families do have extra challenges, but they are just like everyone else:
They want to be loved; these children want to be loved. And they deserve to experience
acceptance as well.
The Joy of Acceptance:
While rejection does in fact exist, acceptance can too even among special needs families.
If you see a family who has a child/children with special needs, be kind to them.
You accepting them for who they are brings them so much joy.
Social media has lead to more acceptance among special needs families.
Families have created Facebook pages sharing their journey and there are lots of
people on there that accept them and some of them are special needs families as well.
Knowing they are not alone brings them so much joy.
While rejection hurts, acceptance heals.
Hope Alive Ministry 