Journey of a Thousand Miles

by Joel Osteen Most criticism is based out of jealousy and a competitive spirit. The more successful you are, the more criticism you encounter. Not everyone will celebrate your successes with you. Our successes draw out their jealousy. This isn't about you; it's on the inside of them. Until they deal with it, it will keep them from rising higher. God sends us tests to see if we can be happy for others' successes. Learn to celebrate others' victories. If God did it for them, God can do it for you. There are going to be people who try to bring us down with their words. Don't seek revenge or stoop to their level. Shake them off. You never win by sinking to their level. Rise above them! Don't let their jealous spirit bring you down. Don't live to please everyone. It's impossible to please everyone. Some people will always find fault no matter what you do.  Love those negative people from a distance! Accept that not everybody is going to like...

Letting go is so hard to do... even when we know that severing the ties will take us in a new direction. When we let go of the negative relationships in our lives, God will provide better ones. It's so hard to let go even then. I don't like letting go, but I do like new direction. I am standing in God's way by holding onto relationships that only bring me down. I have learned far too well that holding onto stale relationships takes me nowhere. Why hold on out of guilt? Why hold on to please people rather than let go and let God bring me His best? Why continue to let people control your thoughts and feelings? I choose to let go. Letting go has only brought me higher. It has brought me to better places, and over time, those negative people are in my past and no longer in my present. They can no longer stress me out. They can no longer manipulate and control me. I've tried to fix relationships on my own. I have tried all I could to get people to change, to reason wit...