Pleasing People -- Dealing with Pride

Pleasing People -- Dealing with Pride

I don't know why, but for some reason I am really struggling with the issue with people pleasing. My greatest strength (so I am told) is my care for people. My greatest weakness is that so often my care for people can sometimes suck the life out of me.

Sometimes I feel like everyone wants a piece of me -- "I need five minutes." "I know you are on your way home, but can we talk ..." In attempt to care for people, too often my own family suffers because I get wrapped up in helping others.

Saying "No" is hard for me. Everyone has expectations. Too often I find myself trying to meet everyone elses' expectations which then leads to frustration and weariness.

In my heart I know that pleasing people is not my primary role -- pleasing GOD is! Yet for people like me who struggle in this area, people too often send the signal that in order to please God, I need to please them.

As I have been praying through this struggle, God continues to show me that PRIDE is at the heart of pleasing people. Ouch! That hurts. I wanted it to be someone elses' problem -- not mine.
Lou Priolo, author of PLEASING PEOPLE -- How Not To Be An "Approval Junkie" (P&R) gives 28 indicators of how you can tell if pride is at the heart of your struggle with pleasing people vs. pleasing God.

I will share them the next couple of days:

1. When you realize you should have said "no" to someone but didn't
2. When you go fishing for compliments
3. When you gossip about someone
4. When you worry what people think of you
5. When you face rejection
6. When you are willing to sin to avoid rejection
7. When you show personal favoritism to someone
8. When you avoid conflict
9. When you are contradicted by someone (especially in public)
10. When you meet a new person
11. When you are afraid to get too close to someone
12. When you have an intense longing to be noticed

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Lord, deliver me from the deadly poison of pride! -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 6; Psalms 70-71; Romans 8:22-39

Great Quote: The way we behave toward people indicates what we really believe about God. Warren W. Wiersbe