Rejection

In the pursuit of finding a spouse, many people will not be selected. Some may remain friends, others will not. Some people have problems processing rejection properly.

God calls believers to give and receive rejection with elegance and esteem. Romans 12:18 New Living Translation Bible says, "Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone."

It's a lesson Majid Movahedi needs to learn. In 2008 the Iranian Supreme Court convicted Movahedi of throwing a bucket of acid on the face of Ameneh Bahrami. The court sentenced him to jail, to be blinded and to economic compensation to Bahrami.

Bahrami rejected Movahedi's romantic advances for two years. Movahedi just couldn't accept "no." So Movahedi blinded Bahrami and disfigured her face with the acid.

Sometimes we have to accept a "no" to love ourselves and to love someone else. True love learns to manage negative emotions and to tap into the self-control of the God the Holy Ghost to manage emotions effectively. The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5:14 English Standard Version Bible, "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

View rejection as God redirecting and preparing you to possess something better. With more than seven billion people living on planet earth, a good possibility exists that another person is available to say "yes" to our romantic pursuits. Comedian Carl Reiner says in the Huffington Post newspaper article, "Carl Reiner -- The Art Of Being Funny," on February 1, 2013, about his wife of 64 years, Estelle, who had one of the most famous movie lines when she said, "I'll have what she's having," in response to the simulated-deli-orgasm scene with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal directed by Carl's and Estelle's son, Rob Reiner, in the movie, When Harry Met Sally, "My wife . . . said, "Marry someone who can stand you." And that's absolutely true! There are many, many reasons to break up but if you can stand the worst of what they do, why break up? (Laughs) You're only going to get someone who will annoy you in another way so whatever little annoyances there are, you can stand that. We were able to stand each other very, very well."

While Bahrami does not know Jesus Christ, she has accepted that forgiveness is better than an eye for an eye. She asked that Movahedi's blinding be stopped and that only economic compensation be pursued for the more than one dozen surgeries she has undergone.

Acid attacks like Movahedi's of Bahrami happen mostly to women in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Uganda, Liberia, Afghanistan, Iran, the United Kingdom, Columbia and the United States. IoL News reported on January 23, 2013, that Bogota Columbia Councilwoman Olga Victoria Rubio says that acid attacks happen because men want to punish women for their beauty; they use the acid attack to fulfill their desire to isolate women. Rubio says that so far 55 cases of acid attacks have been uncovered in Bogota, Columbia, but she thinks this is just scratching the surface of the problem.

Acid attacks are not always well known, but romantic rejection is. Romantic rejection happens almost everywhere.

Yet one person will never reject us. He will help us to properly process rejection. David writes about God in Psalm 27:10 New Living Translation Bible, "Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close."

God holds believers close and never lets them go. John 17:3 Amplified Bible says, "And this is eternal life [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed one, the Messiah), Whom You have sent."

Hold God close. He will be our forever friend and lead us to other friends. He will also led us to a spouse if that is His will for us. Psalm 73:24 New Living Translation Bible says, "You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny."

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