Encountering others
Awareness high
Every word
Move and action

Feeling tense
Insecure
Am I approved?
Or rejected?

Life experiences
Discovery made
Man's approval
Perception based

Truth long taught
Now comprehended
God's approval
Omniscience based

I relax
Free at last
But not for long
Discomfort enters

My perceptions
Distorted too
Kindness undetected
Now clearly seen

Man’s approval
Subjective, volatile
Forever, perfect
Only God’s approval

If you can relate to this poem because you too have experienced the anxiety and vain pursuit of man's approval, you might find the book Pleasing People: How not to be an approval junkie by Lou Priolo beneficial.  A friend recommended it to me a year ago, and I found it very helpful.

One of the most amazing biblical examples to me of man's vacillating approval is in Acts 28:1-6 when some natives on an island went from thinking the apostle Paul was a murderer to minutes later thinking he was a god.

The lack of approval that Jesus received is what truly baffles my mind (John 7:5; John 6:66; Luke 10:40).  How can a perfectly loving, gentle, kind, patient, compassionate person not receive man's approval 100% of the time?  But somehow, that is exactly what happened which goes to show how unnecessary man's approval really is.  You can be doing everything exactly right and yet not be guaranteed men will approve you.

The only approval you need to strive for is God's approval.  Live for an audience of One.  I write this having grown in this area yet still striving to remember what I have learned.