Are you a “people-pleaser”? Do you try to make everybody like you and accept everything you do as what you ought to do? Some are, you know. And almost everyone wants to be accepted as a person of intelligence and ability, an individual of value. But most have experience the truth that it’s really hard, even impossible, to please everybody.
       You may have heard the fable about an old man leading a donkey, accompanied by a young boy. Some people who saw them commented that the old man was a fool for not riding, so to please them, he climbed on the donkey’s back. Then others said he was cruel to let the child walk while he rode, so he put the boy on the animal. Again, people accused the child of being lazy for making the old man walk.  So the man climbed on with the boy and off they went once more. Finally, they approached a fourth group, of folks, who became infuriated at the cruelty visited up the donkey, which now had to carry two people. As they disappeared down the road, the frustrated man, still trying to please everyone, was heard muttering to himself as he carried the donkey on his shoulders!
      Again, a vital life lesson to learn is that you can't please everybody! The truth is, even if we could please everyone, we shouldn't. You see, it’s not only frustratingly impossible; it will keep us from pleasing the One we should. In the “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” (Matthew 5:11) This one thing keeps a lot of folks out of the Kingdom of God and blocks the path to heaven for them.
      As “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (2 Timothy 1:1), Paul cared about the feelings of others. He wasn’t one to go around looking for people to insult; he didn’t go out of his way to make enemies. But he knew that having enemies, or (to put it more mildly) making some people uncomfortable and upset, was “part and parcel” of being a faithful Christian, intent on putting the will of Christ first in life.  He insisted that “If [he] were still trying to please men, [he] would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)
      God said through the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, “Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults.” (Isaiah 51:7) If you’ve found lately that not everyone is happy about your decisions, don't worry unduly about it. As long as you're pleasing the lord, that’s all that really matters!