She wants her father’s approval…
She plays her clarinet in the band tonight…
Her first concert…
“I’ll be there, says her father…
“I like music…”
It isn’t “music” she wants him to like…
She wants him to like her performance…
Her playing.
She wants his approval.
Finally, it is time for the concert…
The grade school gym fills with parents.
The band teacher steps to the podium, and raises her baton.
Almost in unison…40 Band members sit up straight in their chairs.
The teacher’s baton moves downward…
And the band begins to play.
Almost.in unison…
Almost In rhythm.
Not bad…
For 40 elementary school students who first picked up their instruments 9 weeks ago.
As she plays…
Her eyes raise slightly from her music…
Just enough to see her father…
Sitting a few rows up in the bleachers.
He taps his foot as if urging the band forward.
Is he smiling?
Yes!
The concert ends.
She runs to her father…
“Was I good? “
“Was I good?”
“Did you like my playing?”
“I liked your playing,” he says.
“But I love you…”
“and I always will.”
She smiles…
And he smiles back.
She wanted his approval.
He offered something far more valuable.
Far more permanent…
Something that does not depend on her performance.
He offered his love.
How like that little girl I can be in my relationship with God…
Seeking Gods approval for what I do.
And in seeking Gods approval…
looking past a far more valuable gift…
The gift of His unconditional love…
A gift wrapped in His grace…
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
A gift not dependent on our performance
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8
A gift of love from which we will never be separated…
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
One thought on “Seeking Gods Approval”
Not even our sin, so I see what good is it to try not to sin, but to come to the end of self, and see we can’t, so God did Romans 5:10 Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life
what was needed to be done for us in our stead, through his Risen Son for us to have trust for Son Risen one to take over these bodies we in to do it through us, taking no credit for self in the process of learning this truth over the error of in this world