People Pleasing

I'll never be "right." I'll never be "good enough." I'll never be all you imagined me to be.

And I'm alright with that.

It is not my goal to be who others want me to be. I have no intention to be who others want me to be, especially when the word "others" refers to non-believers. Why? Because I strive to live a Christ-like life.

Living righteously in a wrong filled world is difficult. But, if you have opposing forces from non-believers, you know you are doing something right because the devil is trying to stop you. Don't let him. Use his fire to set you off on an even more righteous pursuit.

If you try to please people, you will never win. We weren't put here to please people. Where will that get us? Maybe a new job, maybe a new relationship, maybe this or that. How stable is any of that? Not at all if it can so easily be taken away. More importantly, how selfish is that? Extremely selfish... using each other to get ahead. Fleeting pleasures. Don't pursue them. The devil has set a trap.

You will also never win at this because every person is different. Every person has their own thought about who you should be, who they want you to be. You can't please all these different people all at once unless you create yourself multiple personalities. Frankly, that doesn't sound like a smart idea. Why we create this image and expect it but not create and expect it for ourselves is beyond me. Furthermore, if someone like this tries to frame you into a specific person, most likely you will never meet their individual expectations even if you only try to please one person. Their expectations will undoubtedly change as you near reaching their pictured image of you. They don't want you better. They want something to complain about. They want you lower than them. They speak poorly of you to increase their self esteem. They are probably the ones who need changing. And in the process of you moving closer to what they want of you, you will most likely lose yourself and have to go put all those pieces back together once you finally decide pleasing this person isn't worth your time.

If you surround yourself with non-believers and evil-doers that is who you will become. Of course as believers we want to bring others to a Christ-like life and we should do so. Love those who are hard to love, like Jesus did, but don't become like them. Plant that seed so that when their heart is softened by God the seed will grow into a beautiful plant. But, we should have a firm circle of believers, saved Christians, to help strengthen us into who God wants us to be.

What does this all come back to? Honesty. If you are going to lie, whether about yourself or anything else, really that's just saying who you truly are is no good. And if that's the case, or if you don't know who you truly are, perhaps some self reflection is necessary. In figuring out who you are or who you should be, talk to God. He already has the answer. And then be that person no matter what anyone else has to say about it... because the only ones who will say something bad about someone who is following Christ are non-believers and evil doers influenced by the devil. Being honest is as free as you can get. The truth will set you free!

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10