Pleasing God

“Did I do a good job?” is what my oldest often asks after she’s very proud of something she does. She’s looking for affirmation from her mom and dad. She wants to know she pleased us. Although we answer her, our true pleasure as parents comes from seeing her love God. My heart swells the most when she’s praying, stopping to pray over me, being kind to others, singing Gods word to herself. It’s pleasing to see her love for the Father grow.

I say pleasing because its what our Father uses in His word to describe how we should live our lives. We should discern what is pleasing to God. ( Ephesians 5) We know that prayer and worship please our Father. My fear is that we’ve allowed the fact that our lives should be pleasing to God become an excuse to strive in the worldly.

Let me give you an example: Our girls know that kindness makes our heart swell. They are incredibly kind and helpful children, thanks be to God. My oldest is never hesitant to lend a hand when something needs to be done. The other day, she came to me and said, “Mom, did you see that I helped my sister clean up her mess? Did you like that?” While there were so many parenting flags that went up the highest was the one that said she is striving to please you! That hurt simply because she doesn’t have to strive to please me and I need her to know that. Ouch to my mama heart! BUT praise God for a beautiful lesson…

I need my girls to know that pleasing me looks like loving God. I know that if they love God first and foremost they will bear the fruit of it in their words, actions, and thoughts. Their lives begin to look like honoring one another, serving one another, being fearless of the worldly, the list goes on simply because they love their Father.

Thats it isn’t it! We’ve some how placed works and striving along side pleasing our Father. Thats not it. It’s not even close. I can’t strive in prayer and expect to please my Father. I can’t strive in my day to day and expect to please my Father. The truth is simply loving Him pleases him. If I truly love Him as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit my life is pleasing to Him. Loving Him bears fruit in the day to day without striving.

If I love my Father, I’m going to honor Him, His word. Loving Him looks like honesty with those around me. It looks like compassion and kindness to those around me. It looks like praying through every moment because I know who He is. It looks like worshipping Him from the depths of a heart who loves Him so much. If I am focusing on loving God, I will confide in Him in my darkest, brightest and most mundane moments in my day. Loving Him yields thoughts, words and actions that are honoring and true. If I am focusing on loving Him, the things that please Him flow from my heart in purity.

I believe we’ve been focused on God loving us so much which he does don’t misread me. Yet somehow, that caused us to forget that we are to deeply love Him. Our eyes, our hearts should be focused on Him.

So in every new moment, we have the opportunity to love God more than the moment before. Not taking that word lightly. It’s in those moments where I choose to love God above all else I know that my life is pleasing to Him.

Loving my Father is pleasing to my Father.

“Jesus answered,”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37