When You Feel Rejected by Family

“It is the normal characteristic of a love-starved person to reject love.”

When I heard these words the first time, I fumbled for a pencil and a scrap of paper. Hurriedly I scribbled them onto the paper and marvelled at the power of these thirteen little words. As I wrote, I seemed to see in them the answer to a thousand questions that had bristled in my mind.

Why do children leave home?

Why do people who want to be loved find it so hard to accept love?

Why do wives and husbands who want the same things in life reject each other?

Why do people who profess to love life reject it?

Why do people who want to have friends reject the offered friendship of equally lonely people?

This is a book about rejection and acceptance. It grew out of an incredible response to the television program The Doctor Is In. The program, featuring Charles Schulz and his lovable Peanuts characters, was designed to talk about the hurting people of our country. Not only did we want to show people that we understand how they feel in their struggles with life, we wanted to tell them that there is hope—hope for healing. The “Doctor,” the Great Physician, is in our world. He can help.