To Belong And Beloved

By Mike Foster

Acceptance is powerful.

So powerful it changed the life of a little girl named Emma who opened an unexpected gift. A special edition American Girl Doll with a prosthetic leg.

I watched a tear jerker of a YouTube video of Emma as she unwraps the doll and starts crying, “It’s got a leg like me!”

Emma herself has a prosthetic leg and it brought her so much joy that in her doll she could see herself as similar, included, loved.

A Step Ahead Prosthetics, the company who designed the leg for Emma’s doll, make an awesome statement on their website that says, “We are NOT charging for the customization; we feel that it is absolutely crucial to boost the self-confidence, self-esteem, and feelings of inclusion for little girls with limb loss, and that something as small as a doll that resembles them can have a profound effect on their mental and physical well-being.”

To feel accepted is to belong and be loved. Like Emma, we all to find purpose in our placement. And as People of the Second Chance, we can gift this same open embrace to others.

We’re going to call it radical acceptance which means “loving someone just as they are.” All their brokenness. All their mess. All their failures and flaws.

If we start to say, “Hey, you’re broken like me.” “You’ve been through what I’m going through.” “We can heal together from the hurt.” We’ll see communities build. We’ll empower a tribe of people who are loving the mess out of the world. And acceptance will set people free.

Let every soul belong and be loved.

To find out more about radical acceptance, join us for Rescue Lab in San Diego July 13-14.

Mike Foster is the founder of People of the Second Chance and the author of Wonderlife: A Not So Perfect Guide To Who You Are And Why You’re Here. He lives in San Diego with his family and fluffy dog.