Ava will approach me or Christie and say, “Can I have some juice pweease?”
Most of us are taught early in life to say please when we want something. It’s good manners, we are told.
Then we get a little older and please takes on a new meaning.
Instead of only saying please when we want something or need help, we begin wanting to please others.
All throughout school we worry far too much about fitting in. All through adolescence we want to be accepted. We fear rejection. We compromise who we are and what we know is right just to be allowed in to cliques or groups. We worry others will not like us as much the way we are. Therefore, we change. We become people pleasers.
Then a day comes where we are told to, “be yourself!” We feel a sense of urgency to not care about anybody but ourselves. We dress the way we want to. Talk the way we want to. Go where we want to. And if anybody has a problem with it, that’s their problem and not ours.
That’s how a lot of us cycle through life. We primarily care about the opinions of two: them and us. We think it matters what other people think and eventually what we think of ourselves.
Did we miss someone?
If God created you, granted you believe that, wouldn’t it make sense to care about what God thinks?
We become so attached to thoughts about what other people think about us that we forget what God thinks.
Paul said, “I’m not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” -Galatians 1:10
Essentially we have a choice: be a people pleaser or a servant of Christ. Paul says you can’t be both.
Do not be concerned with praise from people. Just be content in being a child of God. If you want to constantly think about what other people are saying about you, go ahead and have a lot of sleepless nights.
We need to know that we do not have to live this way. We really, honestly, do not have to please others. Regardless of the fact we grow up thinking we do for whatever the reasons, we do not have to.
Love each other. Serve each other. Reach out to those in need. That’s not being worried about pleasing somebody. That’s just doing what we are here to do.