Saturday, February 28, 2009

:::recognition, acceptance, love:::





i'm trying to find a conference talk that i often find myself thinking of. i don't remember what the main theme was, but at some point the speaker said that we can't expect recognition or praise every time we do something right.

this thought frequently rolls around my head as i write my own blog, and read the blogs of other women who are in situations that stretch across a very wide spectrum of experiences. if i had to pick three things that every woman wants, they would be:

-- recognition
-- acceptance
-- love

i want recognition.
i want acceptance.
i want love.

after all, who doesn't hope someone will recognize their talents? who doesn't want to find acceptance from the people that surround them? what woman doesn't crave love, in all of its forms? i do. i do. these are wonderful things to want, things that can build our feelings of self-worth and enrich our relationships with friends and family. and i think that as many of us blog, in a way we are seeking after and asking for at least one of these things.

but...

will we keep going even if these things come late? don't come the way we expected them to? don't come at all?

i hope so.

in blogging, and in life, i hope so.

5 comments:

Rachel said...

Elder Uchtdorf's talk was probably my favorite of the last conference. I think I may post that video on my blog...it was great!

Also, I think those things (recognition, acceptance, love) always come, but they may not always come packaged how we want. The trick is to figure out whose love, recognition, and acceptance matter most (and I'm not just talking about spiritual affirmation) and then to recognize when the affirmation comes, even if it comes quietly.

Rebekah said...

amen.

i had an experience this week where i was prompted to send a news article to my family. i felt that time was of the essence, but nevertheless, it was still a very, very small prompting, the kind that is easily rationalized away. i almost didn't send it because i think my family gets sick of me forwarding things to them, but i thought i might as well obey such a small and easy prompting.

the next day my sister emailed us all and told us that she had had an experience the night before where she used the information in the article to save her family several hundreds of dollars.

so, that wasn't a big prompting, but it meant something to someone. maybe her situation would have turned out alright anyhow, but there's got to be a reason that prompting came through me.

what i'm trying to say is that like you commented, recognition comes quietly, just like my prompting did. i'm starting to wonder if the best things in life, the most tender words from friends and family, the deepest connections with heaven, come...quietly.

Anonymous said...

I often say to myself the same thing...would it have turned out just the same if I hadn't listened and acted on the prompting. Maybe, but I am wondering if acting on a prompting is the important lesson?

Maybe someone else will come along and do what I should have, maybe the situation will just work itself out, maybe nothing happens and we just move along. But not listening and not acting, will always be a loss to me.

Laurie said...

I agree.

And on the flip side of this, I must wonder if I'm sometimes withholding that little piece of recognition or acceptance or love from someone else. Not intentionally usually. So, having that thought, and having come across your blog, I felt I'd better comment! Great thoughts on this subject.

Sarah said...

And sometimes, we have to be the ones to give ourselves that recognition, love and acceptance. Sometimes, it will NEVER come from anywhere else. I have a hard time giving as much weight to those things when they come from myself.

I dont get tired of your forwards. I love hearing what you think and information that you come across. I like to know things.