Why am I so tired of keeping everyone happy?

You get to work and already you are managing it. The tone you use with your boss. The smile you hold for your colleague. The careful answer you give your mother on Sunday. By 14:00 you are hollow. Maybe it is the fear of someone's disappointment, or maybe it is just a habit so old you cannot remember starting it. Either way, you are exhausted. Paul, writing from a Roman prison around 60 AD, knew exactly this kind of pressure. He had crowds to satisfy and leaders to impress. And he walked away from all of it. God, he said, is the only one worth answering to.

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."

- Galatians 1:10 (KJV)

Pick one thing you said yes to this week only because you were afraid to say no. Text or call that person today and say you need to change it. One honest word. That is enough.

Who in your life gets the real you, and what would it take to let one more person see that person?

God, I am tired of performing. I want to live for you and not for the approval of everyone around me. Teach me to care more about what you think than what they think. Amen.