No doubt, we’ve all experienced the sting of rejection in various ways and to varying degrees. It’s not news to anyone that it can be excruciating. Interestingly, scientific research finds that social rejection hurts us by mimicking physical pain in our brains.
So what do we do to recover more quickly and in a healthy way?
We remind ourselves that we are created in the image of God. We have value and worth because we are, as the psalmist writes in Psalm 39, “fearfully and wonderfully made.” It might help to remember and perhaps even write down our better qualities or attributes, or list some accomplishments of which we are proud. Sometimes we can’t manage to recover on our own. At these times, it is good to connect with those who help us feel like we are wanted and precious.
Rejection happens to all of us, and it is always awful. It does not, however, define us. Our inherent value comes from God.
This message is excerpted from “Surviving the pain of rejection” by Susan Schneider in the September 2021 Cafe online magazine.
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