The Ultimate Approval

*From my old Friendster Blog site written on May 2, 2007.

I believe that our lives are surrounded by approval-related matters - ALL the time. People seek approval from others even if it requires them to do stupid things. When we're not given the approvals that we think we deserve, we'll try harder.

It's so bad we even seek approval beyond our knowledge. For example, did you know that laughs could represent an approval-giving action, too? (Besides a reaction to something that's funny) Let's say your boss says something that is really really stupid (and lame), but he/she thinks that it's funny, you'll laugh when you see him/her laugh.. Without knowing it, you just gave him/her the approval of yes-sir/ma'am-you-were-right-and-that-sure-was-funny..

When our closest friends say that they like/do something (and it's not cool TO NOT like/do it) , we might still end up "liking" that something in order to get the group's approval even when we're not willing to do it.. Well, high school teenagers smoking has a lot to do with this, of course..

It get's worse if we think about how we're willing to hold huge and massive "Kenduri Kahwin"s and spend so much just to make sure that we're on par with everybody else's wedding party we attended since the past couple of months.. And the dowry payments, could be described as "taknak kalah" and on the bride's family side, there's this idea of "if we ask for a dowry too low, i'm afraid other people would think that my girl is 'cheap'... so let's ask RM15,000"... so there goes that poor dude's money just avoid other people talking behind our backs eventhough the religion forbids people from overspending, and supports "kesederhanaan"... Yes, you and me know this, but most of us (including me) might still end up doing it when the time comes...

God please help us dudes...

Okay, reality check...

Now, let's think about this in a deeper level, whose approval do we actually need the most?

Isn't the ultimate approval is the one that's from God? Aren't we supposed to please Him, instead of other people surrounding us?

It might be acceptable when the things that we do (to please other people) don't conflict with God's words but what happens when it does? Isn't it awful to think that the things that we do sometimes leave us not approved by God, just to get some little tiny bits of approvals from our friends?

Whose approval really matters, anyway?