@Melissa McKinney Thanks for sharing! This is similar to a recent revelation in my life. I have always accepted that God accepts and loves everyone else. And I have always accepted that God has accepted and loved me to an extent, but there has usually been a condition. I have spent most of my life believing, yes, God accepts me, but I am still not okay. God accepts the broken, dysfunctional, maladjusted, so that is the way he accepts me. But what I am trying to embrace (and getting much better at appreciating) is that God does not merely accept (ie. tolerate) me, but he truly loves and enjoys me just as I do my own children. You are so right about the perspective of a parent changing everything! It is taking me 50 years to get there, but I am gradually becoming okay with who I am.