I recently went through a Bible study at church, where we looked at the difference between a life that is lived to please God and a life that is lived to please people. As I thought through this and it’s implications for my own life, I realized that this is something I desperately need to pray my girls would understand at an early age.
As women it is easy to fall into Satan’s snare of doing whatever it takes to ensure everyone is happy with us. We do what we think others want us to do so that we feel worthy, important, competent, and talented. However, a life focused on pleasing people will run you down, and distort your reality. That lifestyle will cause you to be tossed to and fro, and leave you struggling to measure up, knowing you never really will. If we as moms live this way, surely our girls will to0. If we communicate to them through our actions, words, discipline or encouragement that people’s approval is more important than God’s approval, then we will set them on a a cursed path ( Jeremiah 17:5-7) that leads them no where! Instead of throwing them into the cycle of a life lived building ourselves up in the eyes of others, only to neglect our heart before God, we must begin by looking at what pleases God. Then we need to ask that He would mold us, and our daughters into those types of believers!
What is pleasing to God:
(adapted from a study lead by Stacy Hill, Columbia Crossroads Church)
Faith (without it is impossible to please God, Hebrews 11:6) The opposite of faith is doubt. James 1:6 says that those who doubt are like the waves of the sea, tossed back and forth. Without a steady faith, we are shaky and easily tripped up. Only God can grow our faith, so we need to pray for ourselves, and our girls that God would increase our faith, and help us to walk in it daily.
Walking with Him (Enoch was one who pleased God and all he did was walk with Him, Gen 5:22-24, Heb 11:5)
Praising Him, Doing good, and Sharing with Others (Hebrews 13:15) As moms it is important that we be honest in teaching our girls that praise may not always come easy and it may seem inappropriate given the circumstances. However, God’s word says that at times our praise may be a sacrifice, so we offer it anyway, because we praise who He is, regardless of our circumstances. Our battles will be won or lost based on what we worship!
Children obeying and honoring parents (I have been convicted by this one!) As we are disciplining and parenting our girls, it is important that we remind them that their disobedience is displeasing to God, and that their obedience is pleasing to Him. I often make their behavior very much about me. Our children’s obedience isn’t for our sakes, but for theirs before God! I pray that mine would learn that pleasing Him is far more important than pleasing me!
Serving Christ in righteousness, peace and joy, prayer, a life controlled by the Spirit, acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, our lives as a living sacrifice, and a life of obedience, are all ways that we as believers please God. Teaching our girls to focus their eyes on pleasing Him instead of on pleasing those around them will be a difficult task! We must first ask that He would make us not into respecters of man, but women whose greatest desire is to please her God. We must also ask that He would guard both our hearts, and our daughter’s hearts from ever trying to appease Him, or gain anything more than what He has given us in Christ. He is totally satisfied in who we are in Christ. There is no more approval to be won from Him, just honor to be brought to Him!
My prayer is that God would begin with me. That He would give me wisdom, words and a life lived as an example to my girls, of how to live for an audience of One. As He works that out in me, I pray that He would equip me to teach them to do the same!
4 Comments
I love how you are seeing this through the eyes of being a mom. You are right, a life lived to please others will run you down….I am a witness of it and learning to let that go!
Thanks for sharing this truth with us Danielle!
Stacey recently posted..The Joy Dare
Thank you for this post! I truly enjoyed reading it, however can you elaborate on “Walking with God”. You didn’t really give any examples or expand on what it means to “walk with God”. I know that more mature Christians probably find it obvious, but if you could shed some light for those of us who don’t really know what “walk with God” means, I’d really appreciate it!
Thank you so much for your kindness!
That is such a great question. Here are some other verses that might help:
Deuteronomy 10: 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Deuteronomy 5:33
“You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.”
Luke 1:5-6
In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
I guess in summary it is living a life of obedience to God. However, we can only do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. And we only have that ability if we know Christ as our savior. He is the mediator between us and God. He is the way to the Father (John 14:6), and if we are in Christ, then we can walk with the Father as His spirit leads us to a life of obedience. Also, with Genesis 5:22, it also denotes a sense of communion that Enoch had with the Father. He walked with Him, not away from Him, or contrary to Him, but with Him. He had relationship with the Father, as we can through Christ.
I hope that this helps some!
I love this! Yes I can feel trapped by “pleasing the world” so often. Love your “real-ness”