Breaking Free from Fear of Rejection: Perfectionism, People Pleasing, and Finding Confidence Through Grace [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Breaking Free from Fear of Rejection: Perfectionism, People Pleasing, and Finding Confidence Through Grace [Podcast Transcript]

Podcast Date: October 14, 2025

Description: In this episode of Compared to Who, Heather Creekmore and Erin Kerry explore overthinking, stress physiology, and how Christian women can integrate Scripture with practical strategies for mental and physical well-being. The discussion touches on personal stories, neuroscience, trauma, and actionable practices to calm the mind and body.

Listen Here:

In this powerful episode, Heather Creekmore continues October’s "Fear Free Fall” series by digging deep into the often-hidden fear of rejection and how it influences our lives. She unpacks how perfectionism and people-pleasing are tightly related to our need to feel accepted and loved. Through personal stories, relatable examples, and biblical truth, Heather unravels the underlying self-protective strategies we adopt—and how the gospel offers real freedom and grace.

Key Topics Covered:

• What is the Fear of Rejection?
  Heather explores how this fear drives us and manifests as perfectionism and people-pleasing. She explains that these are self-protective strategies formed by our desire for secure love, belonging, and worth.

• Perfectionism:
  Often, we think, “If I get it right, then I’ll be enough.” Heather shares a personal story from college when a single missed typo made her feel immense shame, showing how perfectionism can lead to exhaustion and shame rather than peace.

• People-Pleasing:
  The fear that “If I make everyone happy, I’ll be safe.” Heather discusses how people-pleasing is not true peacekeeping or biblical peacemaking and how it can even impact our ability to follow God’s call if the opinions of others control us.

• Where Does This Come From?
  Heather highlights how these tendencies usually aren’t intentional—they’re often formed in childhood, at school, or through life experiences that taught us we’d be safer if we kept everyone happy or never made mistakes.

• How It Affects Others:
  Unchecked, perfectionism and people-pleasing can also lead us to have unrealistic expectations of others, continuing the cycle for those around us.

• The Gospel’s Answer:
  True freedom is found not in earning love and acceptance from people (or God), but in embracing grace. Heather reminds us that Jesus took on ultimate rejection so we can be fully accepted by God, no matter how we perform.

• A Challenge to Listeners:
  Heather encourages us to check our motives—are we striving for approval from people or resting in God’s approval? She challenges listeners to shift their perspective from a “people-big, God-small” view to a “God-big, people-small” mindset for greater confidence and peace.

Memorable Quotes:

• “Perfectionism is a fear of inadequacy dressed up as excellence.”

• “People pleasing is not biblical peacemaking—it’s a form of self-protection.”

• “You can never be perfect or please everyone, but you are already fully accepted in Jesus.”

• “Freedom comes when you realize you can’t earn grace—it's a gift.”

Resources & Next Steps:

• Visit heathercreekmore.com for free resources, courses, coaching, and Heather’s books

• Sign up for the free 10-day encouragement email series!

• Learn more about the In His Image Conference in Dallas, TX (November 15th) — details in show notes

If you struggle with people-pleasing, perfectionism, or fear of rejection, this episode is for you. Learn how to find freedom and confidence in who God says you are—not in what you do or how others respond.

Thanks for listening to Compared to Who? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

Transcript

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:
Life Audio Howdy friend. Heather Creekmore here. Glad you're listening to the Compare to podcast. Hope you're having a great October so far or whenever you're listening to this episode. But this month we are doing something I'm calling the Fear Free Fall where we are talking about those things that we're afraid of. And it's not like the big things. These are the things under the things. So if you've got surface things, things that you're always stressing and worrying about, in this series we're going to find out what is beneath them with the hope of encouraging your heart to grow your faith so those fears don't feel quite as strong.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:44]:
Today we're talking about the fear of rejection and in that we're going to be talking about two oh, these are big hot button issues. Perfectionism and people pleasing. Yes, you know how they go with the fear of rejection. But today we're going to talk about how this bundle works together. What's really going on when we struggle with these things and what the gospel's answer is to help us have more faith and less fear around pleasing people or always trying to get everything right. I am so glad you're here today. This is the show for you if you're a Christian woman who wants to strengthen her faith and think less about how she looks and more about what God made her for. And if that's you, hey, I'm glad you're here.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:28]:
Connect with us. Go to heathercreekmore.com and you can find out all we have to offer. I've written several books, we've got courses, coaching, all the things I would love to connect with you there. We've got a 10 day encouragement freebie that you can sign up for as well. Also, I am going to be in Dallas, Texas next month, November 15th for the in His Image conference. I'm going to put the link to that in the show notes. I would love to meet you there. So if you're headed to the In His Image conference, this is a one day conference on a Saturday, but so much encouragement is going to be packed into that day.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:59]:
Show up there and find me at the compared to who table. I would love the chance to meet you. Now let's get to today's show. Okay, so today we're talking underlying fear as fear of rejection. Okay. No one is signing up for that. No one likes rejection. If given the choice between walking into a room and being booed or being cheered, I think I know what we'd all pick.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:32]:
But today we're going to dig into what is the fear under the fear of rejection. We're going to look at how perfectionism and people pleasing, oh, goodness gracious, you know this already. They just tie right in to the fear of rejection. So if you've ever worried about not fitting in, not being accepted, or just felt like maybe you weren't good enough because of the way someone spoke to you or acted towards you, man friend, this episode is for you. I am so glad you're here for it. So let's look at what these things have in common. What do perfectionism, people pleasing, fear of rejection. What do they have in common? Well, at their core they're all self protective strategies.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:16]:
What do I mean by self protective strategies? These are things that subconsciously you have decided to do to keep yourself safe. And that's just the way we're wired because we all long to have secure love, belonging and worth. And although perfectionism and people pleasing and just kind of a fear of rejection, generally they might all look different from the outside, but inside they're all driven by this underlying pulse. Fear, sentiment, choose your term. But this is what we're saying in our heads. We're saying if I don't perform, if I don't, please, if I don't prove myself, then I'll be rejected. So we just started another 40 day journey. Hey, if you want to get in on this one, go ahead.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:12]:
You're a little late, but you can watch the replays. But in our, one of our meetings this week, a couple of the women confess that as they read the words about their identity in Christ and who God made them to be, and you know, some truths that I have in that book around body image and why they struggle, why we all struggle. Some of the women confess to having like strong gut level reactions at some of the content. One woman said it made her feel like she had been punched. Had another woman say, say recently she just kind of had to put the book down because she was just so overwhelmed with feelings and she couldn't even describe like the feeling that came over her. And what I tried to explain is that that feeling is often fear because if you've lived your whole life as a people pleaser or as a perfectionist or as someone who was going to make sure she was never rejected, there's a reason for that. You didn't do it on purpose. You didn't sit down and decide, you know what I think would be a great way to live my life as a people pleaser.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:20]:
No, you didn't decide that. But you were taught it, likely in your family of origin, maybe in school, maybe by distant relatives, maybe by friends, maybe by the cool kids club. But you were taught it. And the way you were taught it was that if you did these things, if you tried to be perfect, if you always pleased everyone, if you avoided rejection, then you would stay safe. And so maybe that safe was from getting in trouble, like getting yelled at by your parents or worse. Or maybe it was safety from being mocked, ridiculed, teased, picked on. Maybe you thought it was keeping you safe from those loud, condemning voices that are only in your head that no one else hears. But you hear them.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:20]:
Maybe they overwhelm you with how cruel they are. And you thought, if I could just be more perfect or keep everyone happy, then I can make those voices shut up, friend. Here's what I want you to hear. Your desire to be loved and accepted. That's not a bad desire. It's a good desire. We all have it. The problem is we live in a sinful, fallen world and the only people you know on this planet are other sinners who fail God regularly.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:51]:
You don't have a chance at being loved perfectly or always being accepted by the people in your life because they're sinful too. And we're going to explore this concept more in a later podcast. But a lot of this really comes down to grace. Until we can accept God's grace in our life, until we can live under God's grace, until we really know what that word means. And friend, I didn't know what that word meant. I mean, I knew the definition of grace, okay? But I grew up in church and in Christian schools and I really had no clue how to live under grace because I was still a perfectionist and a people pleaser. But living under grace is really what frees us. And we're going to talk about the gospel and the gospel of grace in just a second, right? But what I want you to understand is that until you are free to live under the gospel of grace and free from this fear of rejection that just bleeds over into everything, you may also not just be perfectionistic and people pleasing in and of yourself, you may also be demanding that of others.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:00]:
Again, subconsciously, friend, think you are trying to do this. But many of us who grew up with a lot demanded of us or demanding a lot of ourselves don't even realize how we end up being demanding of others, even if we're trying super hard not to be. We have very high and specific expectations of ourselves and also of others. And even if we don't say these out loud, man, others can sense our frustration, our disappointment with them. They know how high our standards are and they know if they're not living up to them. And so, friend, I give you this as another motivation for getting free from this fear of rejection from the people, pleasing from the perfectionism. Getting free and living under grace is so important to you because until you can get a grip on that grace, you can't release other people from these same standards that you've held yourself to. And you end up just repeating the cycle, creating more perfectionists and people pleasers and those who are afraid of rejection.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:10]:
And please hear me, I say that not to shame or discourage you, but to motivate you. This is serious, friend. It's not just a little thing you struggle with. This is a bondage in your life that God wants to set you free from. And when he sets you free from it, oh goodness, then you have the opportunity to set others free from it as well. Or help others find freedom in him is a better way to say it. We're going to talk more about this right after this quick break. Let's look at each of these areas individually.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:48]:
Okay, let's start with perfectionism. Perfectionism says if I get it right, then I'll be enough. It says I can earn approval by performing or looking or appearing flawless part of your life. And that it's up to you whether you succeed or fail. And if you can pull it off, if you can keep everything on a super tight leash and never fail, then you'll never be criticized, disappointed, or unloved. You'll never be rejected. And I know again, we're not conscious of any of those thoughts while we're working hard and striving to be the best or to be perfect or to get it all right. Oh, but friend, I share a story in my book, the Comparison Free Life, about when I was an intern in the college communications office.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:47]:
Okay, friend, here's the picture. I am a freshman in college college. There are no less than eight people that work in this office. But we had an annual report coming out and they passed it around. All eight people, including myself, the freshman college intern, were to proofread this document and oh goodness, I was just so proud of myself when I found some missing commas or, you know, missing conjunction or something like that. And this document gets turned into the printer and we get those published books back. And if you've ever done print jobs or you know anything about printing. Right, these, these were booklets they were eight and a half by 11 books.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:29]:
They probably had, I don't know, let's call it 150 pages in it. These were expensive things to print. And I remember the receptionist opening the front page of the book. We're so excited to dig into, you know, this finished product. And in the very first line of the first sentence of the book, it said the school was a. Instead of a public university, it was missing the L, friend. The very first line of the college annual report said that it was a pubic university. Okay, I know that's funny.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:11]:
But some heads were rolling that day. And me, the college freshman intern, I felt like it was all my fault. I felt so much shame. Like I carried guilt and shame over that missing L for years because I, as the intern, was the last person to look at it. And so I should have caught it. Now, it never occurred to me I was the last person to look at it because they really didn't think I would catch anything because they thought all eight of them had caught all the. And it was like, what the heck? Keep her busy with this. But wow, I carried that because I was such a perfectionist and I didn't want to get things wrong.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:52]:
And I felt so embarrassed that I had missed that L. And why wasn't I better than that? And I was never going to succeed in writing or English or anything with grammar because I missed that L. And I took it so hard. Of course, not the only thing I took hard as a perfectionist through college, through my 20s, man, I just trying to get everything right. If you had to get out your red pen for me, oh, goodness, I didn't like that at all. I wanted to get it right without being corrected. But here's the thing. My.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:26]:
My goal, right, was to have peace, because I thought I would have peace, rest, fulfillment, contentment, even in life, if you never had to correct me, if I was perfect, you didn't have to help me in any way, then that would be a peaceful life. But the irony is, perfectionism never leads to peace. It only leads to exhaustion and shame because we are always going to fall short. We don't have a chance of getting it all right. We just don't. And at its root, perfectionism is really just a fear of inadequacy dressed up as excellence. I used to. This isn't always true, but in the 10 years or so that I've been working with women with body image issues, what I've come to recognize is I can walk into a room and I can almost Spot for you, the women who struggle with body image.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:29]:
And it may not be what you think, or it may be exactly what you think because you're listening to this show and you know. But I can look for the woman who is dressed the most perfectly, who has her hair done the best, who has put the most thought into her outfit, and nine times out of ten, she's the one. She's the one that's stressing about being perfect. She's the one that's stressing over her body image more so than many of the others. Maybe you relate to that. But her perfectionism, her perfect look, her perfect appearance, her perfect outfit, her striving to have it all together on the outside is often masking this sentiment on the inside. I'm not sure if I'm enough. So I want you to see me and think I'm enough.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:16]:
And then maybe, maybe I can convince myself I am. Does that resonate with you? Now let's talk about people pleasing. Oh goodness, this is a loaded one. The people pleaser says, if I make everyone happy, I'll be safe, right? I'll keep the peace, I'll meet everyone's needs, even if it costs me my own. People pleasing is driven by the fear of rejection that as soon as you stop performing relationally, people are no longer going to accept you. So what do you do? You hide your needs, you soften your opinions, you overextend yourself just so everyone will stay happy. And people pleasing again. Is this form of self protection again? It's not peacekeeping.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:04]:
You're not doing the Matthew Beatitude Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the peacemakers. That's not what you're doing when you're people pleasing friend, even if you're making sure no one gets mad. That's not what Jesus meant by blessed are the peacemakers. Jesus doesn't ask us to not have boundaries and to mold ourselves into whomever everyone else wants us to be. In fact, just the opposite. Paul says in Galatians 1, if I were still trying to please man, I could not, I would not be a slave to Christ. And for some of us, the fear of mom or dad or someone else's opinion is far, far greater than the fear of God.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:48]:
Much more afraid that mom or dad or someone else will be mad if I don't agree to this thing or go along with their plan. Much more afraid of that than I am of consulting God or asking God what he has for me or flat out going against what God says He wants me to do and doing what mom or dad or someone else with great influence in my life wants me to do because I don't want to make them mad now. I don't want to undermine how scary it is to think about making choices that someone in your life won't approve of because you feel like that's what God has called you to do. Mmm, friend, this is courage. I recently heard the story of a college grad who finished getting a hundred thousand doll plus degree in biology because he was headed for medical school. And instead after graduation, he decided to work as a youth pastor at his church. I don't even know if he makes $25,000 a year. And fortunately his parents came around and realized that that's what God's call on his life was.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:00]:
And ultimately it was better to lose that hundred thousand dollars plus than for him to disobey God's call on his life. But I wonder, if you're a parent, how would you take that? How would you take it if your child were making a decision that seemed opposite of the track that they were on and doing something that didn't make any sense to you? Ask yourself that question and that may give you some indication of how much you expect others in your life to please you. Yikes. But don't worry. Again, don't feel any shame or condemnation there because we're going to talk about how you have to receive this grace for yourself before you can extend this grace to others. Okay, let's go back to the challenge though, of disappointing people. I have friends who were afraid to homeschool their children because of what they knew their in laws are going to say. I've talked to women who were afraid to move to a new town even though their husband had a job there, but they were fighting him on it, fighting as to whether or not they should even go with him because their parents didn't want them to move.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:09]:
Oh, friend, it doesn't even have to be big things or things with our parents. Maybe you've been afraid to reschedule plans with someone even if you didn't feel good. Or maybe that day you had that lunch planned, you had a ton of unexpected conflicts. You know, kids needed something at school and unexpected project at work. And all of those plans were just making this original lunch plan super challenging. It was gonna be super stressful to do it, but you didn't want to cancel or reschedule because you didn't want to disappoint them. You were afraid maybe they would think you couldn't do it all. And so you had to do it all.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:48]:
You were never going to cancel. You were never going to reschedule. Oh, friend. This used to be me. Let me tell you, I tried very hard to keep my word and not break my plans. But what I found sometimes is that if I am overwhelmed and it's that one thing on the schedule that's really going to into a burden instead of a blessing. If I'm just honest about where I'm at and I tell the person I have plans with, like, hey, okay, tomorrow is going to be much different than I imagined it was going to be when we made these plans. Is there any chance next week would be better for you? What I found is nine times out of ten, they're like, sure, fine, let's do it when it's better for you.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:27]:
And half the time when I. When this happens, the other person's like, oh, I'm so glad you're changing it, because I was going to come no matter what, but I'm feeling totally overwhelmed too, and they just needed someone to give them permission to reschedule. I've done several podcasts over the last few years on the topics of boundaries and people pleasing. So you can do a deep dive on the podcast on these topics. Last year I even did one and the word that my expert who I interviewed on the show, the word she used was subjugation, which was really interesting to learn that that's the technical term for people pleasing for doing what everyone wants you to do. Which really makes Paul's language in Galatians one come to life even more. Because if we are pleasing man, then we are subject to what man wants us to do, or we are subjugated under man's opinions or man's plans for us. And so if we're subjugated under man, then we can't be slaves to Christ.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:30]:
We're someone else's subjects. I'm thinking about how the British monarchy has royal subjects, right? If we're people pleasing, then we are royal subjects to our parents or our friends or employers. Like anyone that we can't say no to. Meanwhile, we might be saying no to God, but can't say no to Mom. Oh, friends, we've got to get a grip on our people pleasing because that fear of rejection that's underneath our people pleasing doesn't go away. When you have everyone happy and smiling and maybe content that you did what they asked you to do, there's going to just always be another thing. There's always going to be another person to please. It's A trap.

Heather Creekmore [00:22:19]:
Now, some of you don't identify as perfectionists and you don't even think you're a people pleaser, right? You're like, yeah, I don't really care what other people think, you know, I mean, I just do my own thing. But you still have, underneath it all, a fear of rejection, right? You're like, I know I can't be perfect. I know I can't please everyone, but man, I really don't want to be left out. I really don't want to be rejected. And there are other ways we can hide. We don't always hide behind perfect clothes or trying to get a perfect body or being super successful at work. We can hide behind being the volunteer of the year at church. We can hide behind our busyness in serving others and doing things for others and building a reputation for ourselves as the person who just does it all and is amazing.

Heather Creekmore [00:23:14]:
And everyone can count on that person and they never say no to anything. And we have to ask ourselves, okay, maybe God has called you to all of that, but we have to do a bit of a motive check. Am I doing all of that because that's what God has enabled me to call me to do? Or am I doing it because I really don't want anyone to be mad at me? I don't want to feel rejected. I don't want to be left out. I want to know I'm acceptable. And maybe it's not even trying to be acceptable to other people. Maybe we're trying to work really hard to be acceptable to God. And this, my friend, is where I think it gets interesting, right? Because underneath our fears of rejection, our perfectionism, our people pleasing, underneath it all is we fear that we're one mistake away from being unloved.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:12]:
We fear that we're unacceptable. We fear that our flaws, our humanity, our imperfections, we fear that they disqualify us from love. And to prove to ourselves that we're worthy of love, that we are acceptable, that maybe there is nothing wrong with us because we can just do it better and faster and stronger, right? We, we try all these human endeavors, this striving, this. I'm going to get it perfect, I'm going to get it right. I'm going to make everyone happy. Everyone's going to be proud of me. And what we're missing in that, the reason why that doesn't work is because we're developing identities that are super fragile because they're based on what other people think of us or what we think of ourselves or based on how we perform. And friend, all of that is a super disconnected view of grace.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:09]:
All of that is believing that we have to earn something that's already been freely given to us. Like I mentioned before, until I can accept that free gift of grace, I have no ability to pour that out on anyone else. I have no ability to extend that to anyone else. If I stay trapped in perfectionism and striving and people pleasing. Oh, friend, my way out is not an earthly endeavor. My way out is the gospel. Now I said we talk about the fear under the fear, right? And the fear under the fear of rejection and under the fear of that is perfectionism. Under the fear that is people pleasing.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:54]:
The fear is that there is something deeply, secretly, shamefully wrong with me. I'm rejected because everyone else sees this flaw. But it's this flaw that I have no idea how to fix. And so I'm going to cover it up. It's like a big old pimple on the face and you're using a ton of concealer, maybe a little cover up and then some foundation. You're going to cover it up hoping no one sees it. But we feel that way about how we are on the inside. And the lie we believe, the lie of the enemy is this.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:27]:
You are broken and nothing can fix you. You're messed up beyond repair. Yeah, you might think you got it all together, but you're never going to be good enough. You can never be good enough. Nothing you do will ever be good. Oh, he's so shameful and condemning as he says this to us. But here's where it gets tricky. In a way, part of that is true.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:52]:
We are broken. What's not true is that nothing can fix us. That's where the enemy wants us to stay. Stuck. But it's true. I'm not good enough. I am broken beyond my own ability to repair myself. Why? Because I cannot meet God's standards.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:10]:
As Romans says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So no matter how hard I try to be perfect or do everything the way you want me to do it so you'll like or love or accept me. I can never meet God's standards. That way I'm always going to fall short. But here's what the enemy doesn't whisper in his lies. He doesn't whisper the beauty of the gospel. He doesn't tell you that the gospel starts with me not being good enough. The gospel starts with my utter dependence and need for a savior because I'll never be able to get it all right.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:46]:
And from that position of humility, and only from that position of humility can I then see the beauty of God's gift of grace to me. Jesus being rejected, dying a humiliating death on the cross, then rising again from the dead to conquer sin and death and pay the penalty for my inability to ever be good enough. That's when the gospel means something. It means something when I say, yes, I need a savior. Friend, my perfectionist friend, my people pleasing friend, my fear of rejection. Friend, you cannot embrace the gospel until you stop trying to be perfect or get it all right or make everyone happy. Because in doing so, you are missing the centrality of us not being able to do it ourselves. In doing so, you're holding onto a glimmer of pride.

Heather Creekmore [00:28:38]:
That's no, maybe I can do it, maybe I can do it. Maybe I can get it all right. But friend, we cannot. We can never be perfect or good enough or please all the people enough. We can never protect ourselves well enough from rejection. The only thing we can do is say, thank you, God, for your good gift that I don't have to earn. I can lay down my pride. I can confess my sin.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:03]:
I can see that I need a savior because I can never do it on my own. I'll never be good enough for God outside of what Jesus did. And that is where the freedom comes from. The freedom comes when I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I can't earn it. Whoo. The pressure comes off. I don't deserve it. I can't earn it.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:28]:
There's nothing I can do to make God love me more or less. I just need to accept the free gift of his grace. The gospel says I'm already chosen, I'm already loved and I'm already secure. Not because what I do or can do or who's happy with me, but because of who Jesus is and because through Jesus, God is pleased with me. Only through Jesus, not any, any way else. But he's pleased with me. He loves me unconditionally. And when we're people pleasing and trying to be perfect and all those things, we're subconsciously, we're trying to manufacture our own acceptance through performance, approval and control in front.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:13]:
That's the opposite of the gospel. It's the opposite of the gospel. In one of our 40 day groups, someone mentioned that sometimes we think about these truths of the Bible, these things that God says as kind of niceties. Friend, that's a wake up call, right? We're like, yeah, yeah, I know God loves me. Unconditionally. But I really want, like, these people to love me and I want a man to love me, and I want to be approved of by this group. Friend, if that's where you're at, I want you to take another look at who God is. I want you to spend time really figuring out what you believe about God and who he is.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:56]:
Friend, that's way too small of a view of God and way too big of a view of people. And whenever God is small and people are big, oh, man, life is scary because we know we can't fight adequately. Oh, it's overwhelming. There's just too many battles. But when God is big and people are small and we know that the creator of the whole universe loves us. Whoo. That should give us some confidence. That should give us some security.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:28]:
That should quiet the need to have everyone approve of us. Our perfectionism should relax. Our people pleasing should disappear. That fear of rejection loses its power. Here's where I want to close us today. You all know that I quote Tim Keller all the time, but this was just a beautiful sentiment. I, I kind of accidentally, I know there was no accident involved. I randomly picked a Tim Keller sermon to listen to on my walk and oh, goodness, he hit this point.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:58]:
I knew I was going to be talking about today on the show. But Tim Keller suggests overcoming the fear of rejection requires us to remember one thing. Jesus was rejected on the cross so that we could be accepted. And thereby he diminished the sting of human disapproval. So next time you're worried about being accepted or approved of, I want you to remember that Jesus already experienced all the rejection. He took all your rejection. People might still get mad at you. They might, might boo, they might ignore you, they might leave you out.

Heather Creekmore [00:32:44]:
But ultimately your Savior took all that rejection so that though you might experience it for a moment or a season, Jesus experienced it. So you can experience approval for all of eternity, so you can experience the joy of God's love and rest. Because you don't have to be afraid of the ultimate rejection. You know, you have ultimate approval. You are pre approved for eternity. And so no matter what people say or do here, or no matter what voices of condemnation you hear in your head here, you can tell them all to shove it because you've been accepted thanks to Jesus's rejection. If you can picture him going into that room that you're intimidated by, where you're afraid those women are going to give you mean looks, and just picture Jesus walking in there ahead of you and he took all their mean looks and all their scowls and all their negative comments so that you can walk in approved, right? Maybe it's your workplace. Maybe you got a group of mean girls at work.

Heather Creekmore [00:33:59]:
I know it exists. And you're just beat down by them constantly nagging you about things or talking behind your back. That's the way women operate a lot of times, right? I just want you to picture Jesus walking into that situation at your workplace and absorbing all that rejection for you. Because that's what he did. So that you can be approved. You don't have to live in it. You don't have to. You will feel it.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:24]:
Like, I'm not saying ignore it. And you know, do any unhealthy practices like that, right? You're gonna feel it. It's gonna hurt. But he took the ultimate sting for you so that you can stand as one who is fully accepted, fully loved, and fully approved of in him. And that should give you confidence, friend. It doesn't matter what they think. It only matters what God thinks, friend. I hope that encourages you today.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:52]:
Hey again, I'd love to connect with you. Go to heathercreekmore.com Lots of great stuff there, some great freebies. You can connect with my Bible reading plans and learn about other opportunities to get encouragement. But I'm glad you were here today. I hope something today helps you stop comparing and start living. Bye. Bye. The Compared to podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network.

Heather Creekmore [00:35:12]:
For more great Christian podcasts, go to lifeaudio. Com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.