What Drives You?

It's three days after Christmas, kids are napping, I'm away from home (with family), sitting quietly in a recliner and my mind starts wandering....my mind speeds through thousands of thoughts a day, and I'm sure that some don't appreciate that probably half of the thoughts/ideas/ramblings that cross my mind come out of my mouth. Tonight, they come out through my fingertips!

Today I kept thinking of a phrase that I hear so many people, including myself, say so often. I was pondering the phrase: "But what do they think?" Whatever order the words are in, it all means the same. "What do they think, what will they think, I wonder what they think...." I started thinking about some of the things I do in my life, maybe things I do because I wonder "what people would think" if I didn't do them.

I thought about the Christmas cards I decided not to send out this year *gasp*, what do people think?! Then I moved to the reason that I stopped sending cards is because my list has grown to a ridiculous 200+ names and I just can't figure out how to narrow it down. "What would they think" if I didn't send them a card this year and they found out I did send them out? Then I thought about my cluttered house..."what would they think" if they knew I really needed to purge/sell this item, I don't want to hurt their feelings because they gave it to me?. I then thought about my house "what would they [insert someone's name here] think" if they came to my dirty, undecorated home.......what would they think.....

I heard a few other people the past several days, over Christmas with family, saying phrases like that too, and it just made me wonder. How many of us are DRIVEN to do things because we are concerned about what "THEY" think of us.....and then I asked myself, does it even matter what they think of us?

Here's where my mind landed, although it's easier said than done. When it all boils down to it, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks of you but our Lord and Savior. We should be driven by the desire to please Him, and to follow His will. So it doesn't matter what people think of your job/calling in life, it only matters what HE thinks about it. It doesn't matter if your job/calling isn't popular, or is different from what most people recognize as normal. It also doesn't matter what people think of how you raise your children, or discipline your children, and it doesn't matter what people think about the things you make a priority in your life, and the things you choose to exclude due to your personal family decisions. If you are truly living your life obedient to the Lord, and following His commands, and pleasing HIM then it truly only matters what HE thinks of you, it doesn't matter what "they" think of you.....

I hope and pray I am not driven by what others think of me in life but what the Lord thinks of me, and judges me to be in life so that in death I may honor him....