pleasing God, not anyone else...

To tenderhearted people, tough love sounds frightening and maybe even unchristian. It comes easier to those of us who are by nature tougher hearted.

When we see a problem in the life of someone we love, we do not hesitate to say, “What we need here is surgery. Let’s hack through his surface level excuses with a scalpel and get right to the heart of the matter.

If it causes a little bleeding- that’s ok as long as the problem gets fixed. If he survived, he’ll thank us later.”

Hearing this, tenderhearted people panic and say to themselves, “Surgery? Scalpel? Blood? I never want to see that happen to anyone, let alone do it myself. All I want is peace and harmony.

Maybe with enough hugs, the problems will solve themselves, “ To you tenderhearted people, God would say, “I understand your tender spirit, I made you that way.

But if you’re going to learn how to really love, you’re going to have to sometimes get tough.”

Sometimes courageous faith means giving up people pleasing.