Quotes about Approval

We call an obsession with having someone's approval 'co-dependency;' the Bible's word for it is idolatry. A country can be an idol. A family can be an idol.

Hans Selye, another great psychologist, said, "As much as we thirst for approval, we dread condemnation.

For too many of us, our sense of identity is more rooted in our performance than it is in God's grace.

Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids.  I consider it morbid.  Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. 

Whatever our position in life, if our lives and works are to be of the kingdom of God, we must not have human approval as a primary or even major aim. We must lovingly allow people to think whatever they will. We may, if it seems right, occasionally try to help them understand us and appreciate what we are doing. That could be an act of love. But in any case we can only serve them by serving the Lord only.

Serving really involves giving people what is good for them, not merely pursuing their approval and granting their desires.

Wanting to look good to others is also a form of the desire of the eyes.

Two main things that will block or hinder a life constantly interactive with God and healthy growth in the kingdom. These are the desire to have the approval of others, especially for being devout, and the desire to secure ourselves by means of material wealth.

It is the experience of having God look you right in the eye and saying, "I love you! I approve of you!" that is the unshakable ground of our self-worth.

Keep a right heart we must remember that the face of God shining upon us in gracious approval is the basis of our value.

This is certainly true for those in professional ministry. In humility, every Christian leader is subject to the people to whom he or she ministers. This is, after all, what ministry is, professional or not—being subject to the needs of other people. That involves listening to them, being attentive to them. But if we become dependent on their opinions, we have ruined any chance of truly helping them, because now our primary concern is to gain their approval.

That we live now in an economy that is not sustainable is not the fault only of a few mongers of power and heavy equipment. We all are implicated. We all, in the course of our daily economic life, consent to it, whether or not we approve of it. This is because of the increasing abstraction and unconsciousness of our connection to our economic sources in the land, the land-communities, and the land-use economies.