Okay, raise your hand if you constantly seek approval for the things you do?  Or, if you sometimes (fibber) seek approval for the things you do?

You can’t see me, but I’m not only raising my hand, I’m jumping up and down so you can see that my hand is raised high in the sky!!!  Sad, I know!

I’m really bad at this!  I try my best to be humble and most of the time I can succeed at being humble.  But when I do something really well or create something that’s really beautiful or write something that I think is profound, I really want someone to comment on it and tell me, “Good job” or “Way to go”.  Or like when I really clean the house.  Sorry about this…I love my house to be clean…I just don’t want to be the one that has to do the work! So, when I really clean it and it sparkles, I want my husband to (1) notice and (2) tell me how great it looks!  Really, is it too much to ask!?!?!!

So, here’s the basis for why I’m writing about this brutally honest subject.  A few weeks ago, our women’s ministry at my church launched a new website and within that website we started a blog.  As the editor and poster for all of our blog writers, I post about two blogs each week…giving each blog a chance to reach out and really soak in with our followers and to attract new followers.  We’ve had some great feedback and “likes” to the blogs that have been posted over the past few weeks.  Until this week.  I posted my first blog on our new site and for days (really only a couple, but it seemed longer), we didn’t receive any new followers, “likes” or comments.  I was pretty sure I scared off all of our current followers and any new potential followers.  I refer to it as my “in-your-face” blog because I wrote about offense and being offended.  Our women’s bible study is studying about offense this next semester, so I thought it’d be a great way to advertise for our group by writing a blog about it.  If I have peaked your curiosity at all, you can check it out here (http://cherishedministriesfcfc.com/2014/01/26/who-me-offended/).

I say all of that to say this…why does it matter so much to me what anyone thinks of what I wrote?  Do I really think that this one post is going to make people like me less?  Compared to other blogs I’ve read it’s not very controversial; yet, it’s a topic that makes people feel uncomfortable.  And because I know I don’t like to feel uncomfortable, I guess I was overly concerned about how the blog was received.

And just to prove what a great sense of humor God has…as I was writing this blog, I took a break and was looking on Facebook and ran across this post by Christine Caine:

Talk about snapping me back into attention!!  And that’s really the only thing I need to remember…it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about me, says about me, likes or dislikes about me and my talents, gifts and abilities…the only One I need to concern myself with is my Heavenly Father.  He loves me unconditionally, all the time, every day, no matter what!!

“…For God has said, ‘I will never fail you.  I will never abandon you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?’” ~Hebrews 13:5-6 (NLT)