Good morning everyone,

Ephesians 5:10-and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Figuring out what is pleasing to people we love, and trying to fulfill that desire is a very biblical principle. Because as we read the Lord desires us to seek and discern what is pleasing to Him as His children. But what are we teaching the people we care about by what pleases us? Do they see the Lord as the priority to be pleased in you or just your own personal desires fulfilled?

We could easily be communicating to the people we love and care about, that what pleases us is not their faith in the Lord but their school work. Or teaching our spouses, family, and friends that their body image pleases us more than them becoming more like Christ? Or simply making money at our job is more pleasing than being a witness? All of these subliminal messages become overt and plain to those who really know what pleases us.

The "rat race" that we inevitably take part in as Christians is the idolatry of being the number one priority in other people’s lives and not pointing them to Jesus. Making consistent insensitive references to our loved ones weight, intellect, or any other flaw is a good way to show them what really matters! It’s a fight to humble ourselves and show people through our own actions that the love of Jesus is more important than any temporary thing we desire from them. I believe than we will prove that we are not like the world and desire people to please us over Jesus.

In His Love, Ld