I'm not good at pleasing everyone.
I swear, I wish I was. I wish I could find the decision, or the idea, or the activity, or anything that would make every single person happy and make every single person like me. I have always wanted that.
I have spent my entire life searching for that, and I'm exhausted.
When you go 19 years searching for the route that pleases everyone else and not enough time looking at what the God of the universe is pleased with, you will find yourself in a place where you are stuck. You will find yourself having gone so far deep into situations that are so hard to crawl out of. Not only that, but to get out of those situations is going to hurt not just the people around you, but yourself - especially yourself. Just because one person is happy, or a group of people is happy does not mean everyone is happy. When we find ourselves so deep into this, we end up hurting people we love most.
I am a people pleaser.
I spend too much time putting effort into picking routes that will make the people around me happy and not enough time into asking God to guide me.
I am selfish.
When people are happy with me and like me, I am happy and content, and that is the most selfish thing I could ever do. I end up consuming myself with the idea that I HAVE to make certain people happy, so much that I become so unaware of the reality that, that only makes things worse. I find too much comfort in knowing that I'm doing what my neighbor wants, and that they're happy with me and my decisions.
LIFE IS NOT ABOUT BEING COMFORTABLE.
A RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST IS NOT ABOUT BEING COMFORTABLE.
When you find yourself in this situation, your priorities are in all the wrong places.
I am learning that choosing what is comfortable is the most uncomfortable thing I could ever do.
Being comfortable in other people's opinions of me, and going out of my way to make them think better of me is selfish.
To those who seek the approval of others,
Stop finding comfort in the opinions of others and start finding comfort in God. For those who think God is a waste of time, I strongly suggest rethinking that because without Him, there is no true comfort. Without Christ, there is no true state of happiness. One may think there is because they have never experienced joy in Christ. Only when you do will you ever experience true freedom - freedom from the chains of trying to please others.
To the people pleaser,
Stop choosing other people. Stop choosing yourself.
Start choosing God.
Galatians 1:10
"Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." (NLT)
