#confidentlove

[mhagen69]

Love her enough to leave her wild. #strengthandgrace #livbrave #livbold #confidentlove #wildwomen #freespirit #montrealgirlinnaples #icanandiwill #watchme (at Downtown Montreal)

[anjakirsten]

To please or not to please?

It’s been longer than I wanted since I posted my last blog.  Yet had these last three weeks not passed, I’m not sure I would be writing about this; maybe there was a reason it took so long.  So what am I getting at?

People-pleasing.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has ever struggled with this.  You know how it goes.  The media says that skinny is beautiful so you starve yourself to be accepted.  The world says money is success so you take on all the extra work they give you even if it means sacrificing time with your family.  You like someone and start to agree with everything they say, even if you think differently, so they’ll like you back.  Your parents think the world of you so you hide your struggles because you don’t want them to be disappointed in you.  Sometimes it’s blatant; other times it is subtle.  It can take on many shapes and forms.  What it generally boils down to is that you care about what other people think of you.  Is that such a bad thing?  Shouldn’t we want to be loved and accepted for who we are?  Deep inside of us this is what we long for, to know the kind of love that doesn’t change no matter what we do.  But what I’ve found is that the love I am searching for is not found in people; it is found in God alone.  No person can take the place of God in making us feel loved and secure, nor were they ever meant to.

This is where my struggle over these last few weeks comes in.  Things have happened that have made me feel hurt, betrayed, misunderstood, unnoticed, unappreciated, and even unloved.  My first response to most of these things was to defend myself.  I didn’t want anyone to think poorly of me!  I had to set the record straight.  I have struggled with the need to be understood a lot in my life.  Honestly, it feels like I’ve been around this mountain a million times.  Every time it is rooted in “what will they think?”  But I was reminded yet again that it doesn’t matter.  It really doesn’t.  The only thing that matters is what God thinks.  Even as I type that, I realize that it can sound cliché.  But it’s true.  God’s opinion of me matters more than others’ opinions of me.  He is the One I will have to stand before and give an answer to for my actions.  More than that, He is the One Who knit me together in my mother’s womb, Who knows every part of me, and Who had all my days planned out in a book before even one of them came to be!  Why wouldn’t His opinion matter most?

Jesus didn’t defend Himself.  He didn’t react to what other people said.  He didn’t try to fix people’s perceptions of Him.  He simply did what He saw His Father doing and said what He heard His Father saying.  How did Jesus know what that was? “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” (Mark 1:35)  “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.” (Luke 5:16)  “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12) Jesus lived His life in communion with His Father!  He didn’t need to defend Himself or make sure people understood Him because He knew how His Father saw Him.  Jesus was (and is) completely secure in His identity as fully God and fully Man!

This is what Father God has been trying to show me.  Through the worst days of these past few weeks, I kept hearing Him say “Come to Me.”  I didn’t respond right away but as I did, I felt my hurt begin to disappear because I heard what He was saying about me.  Even as He put His finger on the things that actually had some truth to them, things I needed to deal with, He did so as a loving Father Who disciplines His children.  I felt no shame or condemnation from Him for living out of this place of people-pleasing.  Instead, I heard His call to stay close to His heart and learn from Him because He loves me!

My prayer is that I would continue to walk in the security of Father God’s love for me just as Jesus did.  My prayer for you is the same.  He longs for you to come to Him so that He can lavish His love on you. 

Will you hear His call?