Will people talk about you behind your back no matter what you say or what you do? Will they judge how you raise your kids? Will they judge how you spend your days? Weeks? Years? Will they judge you if you homeschool your kids (You don't trust God to take care of your kids/ you aren't salt to the world) or if you send your kids to public school (you have given up your kids to the world/ you have taken the easy way)? Will they judge you by the recreational activities you do and do not let your kids participate in (you are going to let your kids do that/ You are NOT going to let your kids do that? Will they judge you if you have an occasional glass of wine (you are being immoral) or if you never touch wine at all (You live under the law) ?
Thankfully, God has a different calling for each person. He directs our path. If we aren't listening to the lies of our own hearts, but listening to His word and His Holy Spirit, then, let them talk.
The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey
A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: "You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?"
So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: "See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides."
So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn't gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: "Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along."
Well, the Man didn't know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: "Aren't you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours and your hulking son?"
The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey's feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.
"That will teach you," said an old man who had followed them:
"Please all, and you will please none."
But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away.
But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them.
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts;
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
1 Thessalonians 2:3-5 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts
Hebrews 4 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
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