The Rejected Ones!
Be careful who you count out……
The Rejected ones
I am a fussy about the cookies I send out, I mean I will dump an entire dozen if the color is not exactly right to me. My husband caught me throwing a dozen in the garbage and told me to put them on the coffee bar under the glass cake taker. I laughed and he said, “I will take the rejected ones”.
I remember growing up in the seventies and Converse sneakers were the in thing, my Mom could not afford them, so she took me to Alexanders Department store and bought me some that were similar, and I was happy with them until I went to school, and one person looked a little too close and saw the back of the sneaker did not have the Converse emblem. I was taunted day after day, and it took one person to give my sneakers the name “rejects” and it stuck. So, every time I wore them, I knew the taunts were coming. I was the biggest joke in junior high school, and that word would stay with me forever.
It is such a harsh word and used so freely, years ago when you applied for something and was denied they were quick to stamp rejected on your application and even working in welfare for 29 years if you applied for public assistance, we said your case was “rejected”. So, when my husband said he would take the rejected ones it made me suddenly realize even the rejected cookies still had taste to them, they were still edible they just did not meet the Lisa Mclaughlin quality assurance standards. Although I deemed them not good enough to be sold but they really did still have value to someone.
In this life I have befriended those that were rejected by others, years later I still see my skinny legs with bobby socks in those “rejects” sitting alone and feeling sad because someone else took it upon themselves to attach a title on me that was not true. At no time in my life have I ever been rejected by the one who gave me life God, so why let someone else attach a title to me I did not deserve.
Too often we count out the one who God has called and stamp “reject “on them if we do not like them. They could be selling a product or offering a service that we want but because we heard someone else “reject” we go with it. This is written to encourage those who are feeling rejected because a certain individual or group have not put their seal of approval on our work or craft, do not worry you are not rejected by God. He put that gift in your hands, that book in your mind and I do not care who does not give their stamp of approval you are valued and everything about you is good and Godly approved.
Just like the cookies that were not good enough to be sold, they were still delicious. I watched my husband savor those cookies with his coffee and he would look at me and say the same thing girl “don’t throw out those cookies they’re so good”. One morning I craved something sweet, and I went to the rejects on the coffee bar and grabbed me a pecan sandie, that was delicious. I looked at him and agreed this cookie was good and if it had gone out to a customer, they would have enjoyed it and never knew quality control had deemed it not fit for sale because it was slightly browner than the last batch. It made me realize I needed to stop attaching reject on what God has approved, be more careful not reject someone because of the opinion of others and to try to add value instead of decreasing peoples worth with negative titles. In the end I am fearfully and wonderfully made in the eyes of God, I am never rejected.
