Pleasing People. Pleasing God.

People’s approval has been my go-to most all my life. I want my husband’s family to like me. For goodness’s sake – I want my husband to like/love me a lot. I want my fellow workers and customers at the family center to like me. I want my blogs to be liked and loved.

I WANT – ugh! But I’ve learned some valuable lessons. While we don’t want to spend our lives trying to get people to approve of us, it is paramount that God approves of us.

We find some good guidance about “being approved” from the Apostle Paul: “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)

Once I read those words, I felt better. I needed this reminder. It also opened my eyes to an area of my life that needed a bit of correcting.

That scripture speaks to choices that must be made. Either we run after pleasing people, seeking their approval, and letting their expectations dictate our behavior, or we run after pleasing God.

First, pleasing all the people in our lives is impossible. We may be late for a dinner, or we forgot to make that call. We may not be showing enough attention to someone. No doubt, we will invariably disappoint someone, no matter how hard we try.

By contrast, God promises that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. (Matthew 11:30). He knows our limitations and our weaknesses. He equips us with who we need to be. Goodness! Even Jesus received the “disappointment medal” from Martha when she said “If you had been here, my brother would not have died!” (John 11:25)

So, He will never ask us to do something that He doesn't equip us for. He gives grace when we are weary. He gives strength when we feel like giving up.

I know this. Freedom is found in living our lives for an audience of ONE. The ONE! So, let’s stop playing the “pleasing” game with those who aren’t on the same page as we are with our Heavenly Father.

May we live for pleasing God. Pleasing Him is what matters most. Because ultimately, what we'll want more than anything will be to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)

I'm praying that the choices we make—from what we wear to who we are – pleases the ONE Whose opinion truly matters.

And I'm praying that if we happen to make choices that disappoints the people we care about (and I promise, at some point, it will), that we'll have the maturity to LET IT GO.