Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week by Joel Osteen Page A

don’t need their approval. I have almighty God’s approval.”
    You don’t have to straighten people out. You don’t have to pay somebody back. You don’t have to be offended because of what someone said. You can ignore it and live happily. I’m convinced we would enjoy life a whole lot more if we would get good at knowing what to ignore.

Stay on the High Road
    According to Mark 3:1–5, Jesus was in the temple on a Sabbath, the day of rest, when He saw a man with a withered hand. Jesus simply said, “Stretch out your hand” (v. 5 NIV ), and immediately the man was healed. The religious leaders, the Pharisees, were there and they didn’t like Jesus. They didn’t understand Him. They got together and said, “Yes, Jesus did do something good. He did heal a man. But you know what? He did it on the wrong day. He shouldn’t have been working on the Sabbath.”
    Like those Pharisees, some will condemn you no matter what you do. Even if you changed and did everything they asked of you, they would still find fault. You could buy them new Cadillacs and hand them the car keys. They would say, “You know what? We really want Lexuses.”
    Let me pass on a secret to save you heartache and pain: Ignore your critics. You don’t need their approval. Stay on the high road. The more they talk, the more God will bless you. They may try to take you down. God will take you up.
    I talked about this with a minister friend who has been around a long time and is well respected.
    “If you had it to do over again, what would you change? What would you do differently?” I asked him.
    Without missing a beat he said, “I would ignore a lot more. I wouldn’t respond to every critic. I wouldn’t waste time arguing about things that didn’t matter. I wouldn’t spend so much energy trying to make everybody understand me and make everybody accept me.”
    I believe many of us would see our lives rise to higher levels if we just ignored our critics.
    Many years ago a young man named Saul was chosen to be the next king of Israel (see 1 Samuel 10). The prophet Samuel blessed him and called him up in front of the people and said, “He will be our next king.”
    Most of those present were very excited and they congratulated Saul. But when he returned home, many longtime friends ridiculed him.
    “Saul is not our king. He’s not a leader. He doesn’t have what it takes.”
    They were actually jealous of Saul. They were so insecure, so intimidated, they had to try to push Saul down so they would look bigger.
    Remember this phrase: “When people belittle you, they are being little themselves.” Small-minded people won’t celebrate you. Small-minded people will be jealous. They will gossip to make you look bad.
    But they are not going where God is taking you. My friend, you are called to be an eagle. You are called to soar, to do great things. But we all have some crows squawking at us, some chickens pecking at us, some hawks attacking us. They are trying to bait us into conflict. Don’t get drawn into those battles.
    You have an advantage. You’re an eagle. You can fly at heights to which no other birds can soar.
    Crows love to pester eagles. The eagle is much larger, but the crow is more agile so it can turn and maneuver more quickly. At times the crow will come up behind the eagle and dive-bomb the big bird. But the eagle knows this secret: It can fly at altitudes that the crow cannot fly, as high as twenty thousand feet.
    So instead of bothering with the pesky crow and its squawking, the eagle simply rises higher and higher and eventually the crow is left behind.
    Do the same when someone is pestering you out of jealousy or spite. Soar above. Leave them behind.

God Will Make It Up to You
    Use your energy to improve your skills, to be the best that you can be.
    God hears what your critics say, and if you stay in faith, He will make it up to you. Use your energy to improve your skills, to be the best that you can be. And God will bring