The Audience of One

I wonder why it is that we, as women, mothers, wives, daughters, friend, daughter-in-laws and the list goes on, care so much about what others think?

I know that for years I have been concerned about what others think of me. Do I meet the standards the world has for me? Do I look the way the world tells me I should? Am I the parent the world tells me I should be? Maybe I SHOULD go to work and send my kids to public school, maybe I shouldn't have the number of children we have, maybe I should be the thin, focused-on-myself woman the world tells me I should be, and On and ON and ON the list in my head would go and it would keep me up nights. And send me on a quest to read the latest books, magazines etc to see what changes I needed to make in me to be that Woman.

And then one day the Lord met me in the midst of that worrying, sick pit in my stomach all the time place. And do you know what He told me? He told me that I don't have to worry about any of those people! That I don't have to be constantly making changes. That HE is the audience I live my life for and HE is the ONLY person that I need ever worry about what He thinks of me. Well, I have to say that released in me a burden that has not returned. I am the woman he wants me to be. And He loves that woman.

Is it an easy place to be in? Not always. What is right is always a hard thing to do and a hard place to be. But I have to say that when you know that every choice you make needs to be out of obedience to His will then it is a sweet, place of rest. And I like the freedom this place gives me. I like living my life for His pleasure. And I know that He takes pleasure in my focus on Him and the good things He has for me and my family when we are obedient to Him.

So who are you living your life for? Whose approval are you waiting on before you finally declare yourself the person who is worth something? Try living your life for YOUR audience of one - Christ alone.

Living in the center of His grace and love,
Peg