Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast. Today we visit with two women who talk about

living up to impossible standards that we put on ourselves, which often are a result

of comparing our lives to others. Jenny Allen is a Bible teacher and the author of need for approval from others led to emptiness and how she found fulfillment in the

affirming words of Christ. My name is Jenny Allen and I am blessed to have four kids

and be married to Zach Allen for 20 years now.

And we live in Austin, Texas.

And over the last few years, have had the pleasure

of getting to lead an incredible team at If Gathering and that is an

organization that exists to serve leaders within the church to give them tools to

disciple people to make disciples. I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and my parents

went to church. They loved us and they loved the church and they taught us to love God.

But I don't think through those years of growing up I ever saw how much I needed God for myself.

It was a lot later that I actually saw my need for Jesus and my need for a Savior and that I saw my own sin.

And so all those years I think I probably appeared to be following Jesus and loving Jesus, but I don't remember a real relationship with

him through those years. I remember being fearful that I would let people down.

I had a real desire to please everybody around me, specifically my dad.

And I think that that became such a burden because I was needing something from him I was needing something from

people that would never actually be enough for me. When I was 17 years old I was at

Canada camps in Branson Missouri Missouri, and they do something every year.

They have the three crosses and they reenact Jesus' death.

I'd never processed that I had been a part of what put him on that cross until I was 17 years old.

I was just absolutely broken and I remember just crying and crying that night and just really saw a complete life

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