Not everyone will like you.

Not everyone will understand you.

Some will form ideas about who you are and what you stand for based on nothing more than superficial interactions with you, or brief knowledge of some basic facts about you. Some will even go so far as to gossip about you, or worse, do something to actually disrupt your life.

The Bible clearly tells us that we are to love each other. Paul exhorts us to try as hard as we can to be peaceable to everyone we meet. Jesus goes a step further and tells us to love our enemies. He knew we would be faced with people who hated us. When you are caught in this situation, you need to remember…

I know this is easier said then done. This continues to be an area that I personally need to work on. I want everyone to like me. I would be a liar if I didn’t admit that sometimes I like to play the role of a mind-reader, assuming I know what others are thinking about me. But the truth is, I’m NOT. I really don’t know what others are thinking about me and honestly, it should not matter.  I should not care what others are thinking of me.  The only one I should be worried about judging me is the ultimate judge. He is the only one that I should worry about. And I already know where I stand with Him.

I was talking about this with a friend and she gave me some wise advice. She suggested that we need to be careful not to be double-minded. For example, if I trust God to take care of my family through this adoption process, but I don’t trust that I am only accountable to Him, then I am being double-minded. She reminded me that God is an all or nothing God. We can’t pick and choose the pieces to have faith in. This was eye-opening for me.

As much as we may want others to like us, there is only ONE that we are accountable to. There is only ONE who’s opinion of us we should worry about. The rest doesn’t matter.