People pleasing is hard work but we do it anyway.  We see what’s going on around us, latch on to the latest, greatest, and shiniest, and forget who we are.  Before we know it, we’ve set ourselves up to get approval from people for most of the decisions we make.

The funny thing about people pleasing is that people are never really pleased (at least not consistently).  People are inherently selfish.  Their desires and moods change.  After all, they’re just doing what people do.  Sometimes their responses line up with what God wants and sometimes they don’t.  So why spend so much time trying to make others happy when they struggle with the same issue?  The people we’re trying to gain approval from are trying to gain approval from another set of people!

We naturally want to please our parents, spouses, bosses, and friends.  We’d like to be a part of a group, have an application approved, and receive the affirmation that we’ve done a great job.  Getting advice and counsel from wise people has its place (and should be a part of our process), but the approval we should be looking for- what our hearts really need- only comes from God.