Thick skin lemonade

Over the last week or so it has again come to my attention a fact that everyone should know, and that is, you just can’t please everyone.

You can try…but you will fail.

Doing what we do here at this newspaper, and other community newspapers all across the country, you learn to have a pretty thick skin.

We are never going to make every reader happy, and will often be the focus of criticism and ridicule. In my more than 25 years in this industry, that is a fact that just can’t be argued.

At a community newspaper like ours, we simply just do our best to report the news as it happens, quote those that are credible sources, and do our best to get every story right.

It does happen every now and then that a story we publish is found to not be completely accurate, and most times that is because what we recorded, or what we were told, was not accurate. And, to be honest, there are rare times when we miss the mark.

With all that said, a long time ago I was told by someone else in the news business that it was our job to report the news, not make it. That is wisdom that is best followed and so, most of the time, it is.

That is exactly how I have chosen to respond to the accusations over the last week. Instead of firing back, pointing fingers, or starting a debate that just can’t be won, silence has been and will be my choice.

It is surely an instance where we were handed lemons but are choosing to make lemonade.

It was timely to say the least that Pastor Steve McMichael, at Maranatha Christian Center, preached last Sunday morning on Ephesians 6:12 that says, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

The minor negativities of the last week very well could have become so much more than it was, but instead we lean on our faith and beliefs and recognize that those bringing the accusations, and those who were a tad less than truthful, are not the real enemy. The real enemy for all of us is those rulers of darkness and that spiritual wickedness that is so prevalent in our world today.

If you ask a Christian that knows their Bible and has walked the walk for a while, they will tell you that to be a Christian does not make us impervious to bad things. In fact, it pretty well makes us a target for those same said rulers of darkness and Satan’s minions.

You see, if you are living a life focused on Christ and doing your best to live for Him, Satan is not going to like that much, and he will try to knock you off course. We just have to keep our focus clear, and not let him.

That is often a daunting task.

Luckily, as Steve also mentioned, we have the armor of God and it covers everything but our backside.

So friends, just keep moving forward, let the fiery darts of the enemy bounce off that breastplate and helmet, and keep your eyes on the maker of all things.

You know…the one who stirs that sweet lemonade of life.