Happy Birthday Ben 🎈 Your journey has just begun...
It's my youngest son's birthday. He is turning 29 today.
One of the things that stands out to me when I think of Ben is that he performs for an audience of ONE! By performing for an audience of One, that has made him exceptional in every way.
Certainly he listens to others and learns, yet at the same time, when it gets right down to it... it has always been all about getting approval from ONE!
Talking and walking in a personal way with God himself. Living his life in a way that is true to who his GOD has called and created him to be. His walk has been so incredibly real!
People often say to us, "How did Ben become this at such a young age?"
Well, though he is young he's been doing this for a really long time. He began listening and being empowered by ONE as he taught his first Bible study in the 3rd grade, Through high school he had a Bible study every Saturday night which grew to be over 100 kids packing out our house. And became a pastor his senior year of high school... And to see what God has done and is doing is an absolute blast to watch as parents.
He has been a unique and amazing human because he performs for an audience of ONE!
This causes me to think, who am I performing for today? What voices am I listening to? Who am I trying to get the ultimate approval from?
So many people, probably very well-intended, give us all kinds of advice. Many times the opinions are contradicting each other. People often tell us who we should be and what we should do. Sometimes the advice can be valuable. But, sometimes, I'm not trying to he mean here, but the advice people give us can be flat out ignorant, opinionated, and ridiculous to be honest. 😭
People often try and make us into who they think we should be, and so often we will never get their approval EVEN IF we do everything they tell us. This is just a part of life so we just need to know what to do about it. 😊
So what DO we do about it?
Listen to ONE voice. 🙌 Because we are actually LIVING for THAT voice. When we are performing for GOD, we are performing for the One who will actually empower us to be who He's created us to be. And when we fail and are not performing in the right way... We are forgiven and allowed a fresh start. COOL deal!
Our Father's plans for us are even better than the best intentions of anyone else. God's plans for you and I are far better than we can even come up with ourselves. So let's get our approval from Him alone and find ourselves performing today for an audience of One!
“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”