Observe any child in their early years and you will find a human who cares little about others’ opinions or perceptions of them. Certainly, the negative side to this can be a self-absorbed miniature creature throwing an embarrassing temper-tantrum in aisle three of the local grocery store. However, the positive side is a handful of years in which more is learned, absorbed, and attempted than any other set of years in a person’s life.

Why?

Perhaps, because a child has not yet learned the lie that perceptions matter. An infant will chase things, try things, build things, and overcome things with little concern about what others think. To a young child, failure isn’t fatal. A toddler never wastes time or effort processing how others view their attempts at crawling, walking, and talking.

At some point in our lives, we began to care. We began to watch and obsess over what others thought or said about us and, sadly, that day is when we initiated the compromise of our dreams and values.

The moment we are consumed over the opinions of others we begin to forget about our own opinions, ideas, and beliefs. We begin to lose ourselves and who God made us to be. The result becomes an exhausting and debilitating life of masks to create a PERCEPTION of who we are rather than the REALITY of who we are.

Maybe, we need to go back to those early years of life and, like an infant, avoid these two costly traps: