BY DR. GLENN MOLLETTE
Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Donald Trump and all the candidates want to please enough of the American people to win. When it comes time for Americans to vote, a candidate wants to please the majority of the people, but most especially a majority of the electoral college.
A ballplayer wants to please his coach. The player knows if the coach is displeased then he will see limited playing time. The student wants to please the teacher because the teacher will assign the grade.
All of us have some people in our lives who we care about pleasing. The boss is the one who writes the paycheck. There is the pressure to perform and succeed in order to get ahead in life. Some people do everything that is right such as work performance and extra hours and performing above expectations in order to get ahead. Sadly, some will stoop too far.
We’ve heard a lot about Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Out of all the many accusations there certainly has to be some truth that Weinstein was very wrong on multiple occasions. How many occasions though have persons done whatever it took to please Weinstein in order to get a movie part and a big paycheck? How many times a day does this still go on in Hollywood, politics, the corporate world and on and on?
Do you live to please people? I bet you do some of the time. There is somebody in your life you want to be happy with you. If your answer is “yes all the time” then I suspect that most of the time you are a very unhappy person. If you live to please people there will always be someone displeased with you. You can’t please everyone all the time and you can’t even please one person all the time. If you try to please all people then most of the people will always be displeased with you because everyone has different opinions about life and how you should live your life. An old minister said once, “If you please God it doesn’t matter who you please and if you displease God then it doesn’t matter who you please.” Keep in mind that you can please God and others may still be displeased.
People have opinions about how you should vote and how much of your money you should turn over to the government in taxes. People have opinions about how much of your money you should be allowed to keep.
You’ll never make everybody happy, nor will Trump or Bernie Sanders.
Sometimes people let you know how disappointed they are in you. It’s common for us to be disappointed in people especially if we are counting on them to make us happy. If your happiness today hinges on others you are already bound to face a disappointing day. If your goal is to make everybody happy today then you are already having a frustrating day.
Just do and be the best you can. That’s all you can do.
(Glenn Mollette is a nationally/internationally read author of columns, inspirational devotionals and books. He is the author of 12 books.)