Prayer of Self-Acceptance

Prayer for the Week of January 1, 2023 - A Prayer of Self-Acceptance

Grace and Compassion, may we love and accept ourselves as we are and as we may change. May we love and accept ourselves as we are, with the seeds of growth for responsibility, care, peacemaking, joy, justice building, nurturing wonderment, and dancing with delight. May we love and accept ourselves in the bodies we have, whatever shape and size they are, however we might be categorized or ranked by powers and authorities, however we move, however we laugh, however we love, however we think or process or imagine and live to make our dreams real. May we love and accept ourselves as we are, and as we are becoming, and put down the self-colonizing tools of shame, the self-hatred and self-mistrust. May we love and accept ourselves as we are, and as we are becoming, releasing improbable, impossible, and harmful ideals, and embracing our gifts, our particular strengths. May we love and accept ourselves as we are, and as we are becoming, redirecting our power and energy from self-condemnation to nourishing communities of dignity, from self-loathing to nourishing diverse friendships and neighborhoods, from self-hatred to loving this world and this life so boldly we show up with generosity, gladness, and gratitude for every day. Amen.