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

others across your path who will celebrate and encourage you.
    Saul could have easily lost his focus and wasted time defending himself. Many had contempt for the new king: “They despised [Saul], and brought him no presents” (1 Samuel 10:27 NKJV ).
    What did he do?
    Saul ignored them. One translation says, “Saul paid them no mind” (v. 27 The Message).
    Follow Saul’s wise approach. Pay no mind to jealous people or those who try to bring you down. They don’t control your destiny; God does. They are simply distractions. Just stay focused and do what God has called you to do.
    After all, when you come to the end of your life, you won’t have to give an account of it to your critics. Instead, you’ll stand before almighty God, the Creator of the universe. You will hold your head high and say, “God, I did my best. I ran my race. I finished my course. I became who You created me to be.”
    That’s true fulfillment. That’s when you will be rewarded.

Don’t Be on Edge
    These days it seems we are all touchy and on edge. A member of our congregation told me recently, “I quit coming to church for two months because everybody was talking about me. Everybody was against me.”
    I didn’t say it, but I thought, “Ma’am,
everybody
doesn’t know you.”
    We have a big church. With seats for nearly seventeen thousand people, the odds of everybody picking on one person are slim.
    This woman was on edge, like so many people today. She fell into a trap of creating conflict where there was none. As a result, she stayed home,missed church, and hurt only herself. The funny thing is, our church services seemed to be just as good as ever—matter of fact, a little bit better than normal—in her absence!
    Maybe worse than being on edge is holding a grudge. What a waste that is! What’s in it for you except stress and anxiety? I was leaving the mall with a friend a few years ago when he stopped near the exit doors to the parking lot. Our car was only about fifty feet outside the doors.
    “Let’s go another way,” he said.
    “Why?” I asked. “Our car is right here.”
    “I don’t walk by that store,” he said. “They did me wrong.”
    I might have laughed, but he was so serious and dramatic, I thought maybe they’d accused him of shoplifting or something worse.
    “What happened?” I asked.
    “They wouldn’t take back a pair of shoes when I was in high school.”
    Twenty years ago?
I thought.
I’d imagine that store manager is dead and gone by now, or retired to Florida.
    I wanted to say, “Just let it go. I’ll buy you some new shoes!”
    My friend had been carrying that grudge around so long that he’d probably worn out ten pairs of shoes due to the excess weight of it.
    Are you on edge, carrying a grudge, or fighting battles that are not important but consume your time and energy and keep you from pursuing what’s really important—your God-given goals, your God-given dreams?
    You have only so much energy. If you become caught up in things that don’t matter, when a real threat comes along—a real Goliath battle that might make a difference in your drive toward your divine destiny—you may not have the energy to win that battle.

People Pleaser
    In my early days as a pastor, I had difficulty ignoring my critics. I wanted everybody to like me. I’d stepped in after my father’s death in 1999, and his were big shoes to fill. He had led his church for forty years.
    One of my problems was that I tried to keep everyone happy. I didn’t want to lose anybody. I finally decided,
I will just be myself and do it the way God is leading me
. Ninety-nine percent of the congregation wasbehind me and very loyal. But there were a few who were not supporters. Some didn’t like the way I ministered, and some didn’t like the way I was leading the church.
    I felt pressured to fit into their mold and become who they wanted me to be. But you are anointed to be you. When you let people squeeze you into their mold and