I can't speak for the whole world, but as for myself, left to myself, I'm probably not going to change anything about myself until you are willing to accept all of me as I am. It's already hard to listen when you are accepting me. What's already hard becomes impossible when people won't listen. It's kind of like having a conversation with a person with earplugs that can't hear you. I'm not likely to change my identity to become more acceptable in your presence until I see equal appreciation for who I already am.

All too often I can catch myself being persuaded to change myself for the wrong reasons, and that bothers me. I should be changing because I want to maintain friendships and because I am willing to listen to people who love me. God is the ultimate source of my conformation. He has always loved me for who I am, since the dawn of time. Because of his love, my conforming to his wishes should never be far behind.

I'm not able to conform to your likes/mannerisms with at least an appreciation when you aren't willing to even listen to anything I have to say. I respond to love, with love in kind, and attempting to mirror what good I see in the love of that person. This is not to say that I won't attempt to try and appreciate others' different tastes but it becomes much more difficult when they are not already acting in love.

For example, am I more likely to act in appreciation toward a metal/screamo song my brother shows me or someone I don't really get along with? Well, the obvious answer is, I respond in love in return to the love my brother has shown me in the past. He has shown me love, so the task is not impossible, just somewhat difficult at times.

[I use the word love very freely in this context, any of the aforementioned responses could mean respect, love, appreciation, and acceptance.]


It works the same way with friends and family. Just because you don't like Disney Channel, doesn't mean I'm going to stop liking Disney. In fact, I'll probably be inclined to bring it up as much as humanly possible if you cringe at every reference. Yeah, I'm one of those people. When you accept that it is a part of life (and probably always will be xD) I'll probably stop talking about it because I know it annoys you. When you are ready to accept that, without laughing, cringing, or mocking, that's when I'm ready to conform.

Next to God, the people who I conform most to are my parents. If their wishes are ones that I can't see any harm in, even if I don't see a point to them, I will conform because their love is constantly on display. They put up with me day and night, with all my quirks and blasting music at all hours.

Many times this love=conformation is not an intentional practice by me, just something that I do naturally. I think we all want acceptance, and as hard as the task may be, are liable to make that extra hard step as long as we are showed acceptance. Maybe I'm weird but that's just how my mind works.

To paraphrase one of my Dad's favorite lines from Roosevelt, "People won't care how good your tastes are until they know how much you care".

Reaching out and communicating with the world is a task that I have been given to fulfill.  Without God's help I wouldn't stand a chance at reaching out and accepting other for who they are. So my job is to beat the impossible task with God's help, to makes bonds with people who aren't initially accepting. I have been given a quest to share the Gospel with the nations and because of that I want you to know how much it means to have people that are receiving. And even more comforting are those who share that belief with me.