The Diary of a People Pleaser

 "I'm worried about everyone but me, and I just keep loosing myself"

--Falling, The Civil Wars

Lately God has been clearly trying to get my attention. I, however, have been doing all that I can to avoid what it is He is trying to tell me. I know this lesson is going to be too hard to deal with over night. It is going to hurt. I don't want it to hurt.

I have been learning something about myself that I never viewed as an issue before.

I am a people-pleaser. There, I said it. I admit it.

I know I fit in with quite a large number of people when I say this, but I live to make others happy. And that, my friends, is where the problem lies.

How much time do I spend thinking of what others will think or say because of my actions? Way too much. How many times do I refrain from something that could please God because it wouldn't be pleasing to others? Too many.

I am sick of it.

I have gotten caught up in the idea that if I serve God's people than I am serving Him. Yes, that can be true. In fact, Scripture talks about the importance of serving. But somehow I blurred the line between serving and pleasing. That is a dangerous mistake.

I never realized how much of a pattern people-pleasing is...until recently.

God has been trying to get my attention in this area of my life, and the "attacks" have been coming from all sides. Yet somehow I think it is good enough to just admit the truth then move on. It's not. God isn't bringing this to my attention so that I can take on another label. In fact, just the opposite. He wants to remove this label I have adopted that has kept me from pleasing Him only. What pleases God is so much more remarkable than what pleases this world. He has called me higher, yet I settle for less far too often.

God so desires to take us all on an incredible adventure. One that is far more worthwhile than what others have to offer us.

I want so badly to accept the fact that I cannot make everyone happy. That is against the very warnings Jesus gave His disciples. People hated Jesus, even though He loved them--they still do.

I would much rather trade in the approval of this world for the ability to be walking in the footsteps of the man who gave all that He had to offer in exchange for a relationship with me.

"We serve God whether people honor us or depise us, whether they slander us or praise us..."

 --2 Corinthians 6:8 (NLT)