Approval…do you need it???

It starts with who cut the first tooth, I guess…then onto who walked first, said the first words…onto who made the best grades, got the scholarship, graduated from college with two degrees and the promise of a high dollar job or internship and on and on to infinity and beyond… 

What am I talking about?

Our constant need to impress each other.

Our constant need to earn the approval of people…

So, as a brown girl in a very white community, maybe that’s where it started for me, I’m not sure…

Maybe because I was the oldest of three siblings and was expected to be a good helper…                       maybe I just didn’t feel as pretty…

Heck, if I knew I would just say it out loud and be done with it…right?

I tried to earn approval by acting as if nothing mattered… that really did… I threw games to come in second, I didn’t need to go with… I didn’t have to have that… so, was I unselfish or was I trying to make myself into a person that the people I wanted to impress liked so I could gain…

                                               Approval…

I went the extra mile on everything, gave when I didn’t have to give…then got accused of giving rather than sharing time because it was easier… getting left out anyway as hard as I tried.

I could go on and on with this catharsis but now I will get to my point before you also slam the door in my face and say I’m not enough…

I came to a realization this week, yes something that was brand new to me, as old as I have become, I never saw it…but I heard Jesus say it, well someone quoting His words as listened to the book of John…

                                 It hit me over the head like a ton of bricks…

…and then I heard Him saying it again in the next chapter!!!

                               What have I been doing all my life…with my life???

The Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus for not only breaking the Sabbath rules, but because he called God his Father, making himself equal with God!

Jesus began to speak and explain… then in chapter 5 after telling them they were searching the scriptures to gain eternal life when he was standing right there with them… finally in verse 41 he says it… 

                                   Your approval means nothing to me…

I wanted to shout out loud!!! He saw that they did not have God’s love in them, and God’s was the only approval that he needed!!!

Then he caps it off by saying in verse 27 of chapter 6…                

                           For God the Father has given me the seal of His approval.

So why am I trying to make you happy with me?  Why do you care what your neighbor thinks of you? Why do we try so hard???

Matthew ^37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

So, if I love God and He loves me, and I love my neighbor as myself whether my neighbor likes me or not… then I don’t have to worry about getting yours or anyone else’s approval!! 

                                               I AM FREE!!!!