GET REAL

 I heard a comment not long ago which REALLY got the wheels turning?  The comment, " I have spent my entire life trying to be the person someone else wanted me to be."  NOW--I could really spend some time on this subject---BUT today I will only talk about those we love and mistakingly try to please by seeking to emulate who they want us to be----NOT who we really are.

Almost all of us desire to be well thought of---liked, admired, loved.  We begin seeking approval and trying to please others from the very early days.  Our parents are perhaps the first people we desperately desire approval from.  We go to great lengths to get their attention, and crave their affection.   This can lead to a lifetime of always trying to determine what others are expecting from us and performing to please them.  It is a slippery slope seeking the approval of others by changing who we are.  If we are not careful, we might even forget who we really are.  A lifetime of seeking the approval of first close family, and then friends and even loved ones can be utterly exhausting and extremely unfulfilling.  

After years of trying to please "The World", we meet the one we love.  We quickly try to determine who they want us to be and go to work trying to be that person.  The next thing you know, you have won their affection, but under false pretense.  The person our loved one is so enamored with does not begin to look like the "Real Us".  We have created an identity---a false identity.  The effort to keep this facade going will be absolutely exhausting.  And the realization that the real me is not loved, but the created false me is will eventually lead to heartbreak.

Be the one you are.  Be the real you---not who you think the world wants you to be.  The only one we should be trying to please is God Himself.  He has given us a picture through His Word of how He desires us to look and act.  The rest of the world will never be satisfied---and we will never meet that quest of running after fame to garner love and respect.  Being true to who you are and seeking God's instructions is the only path to peace.  This quote from Shakespeare sums up what I am trying to say~

"To thine own self be true."

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?"

Galatians 1:10