People won’t always like you. We have to come to terms with that fact and it is what Solomon reminds us of in two intriguing verses here in the middle of chapter 7. If you go through life letting other people be your judge-and-jury you will go in circles, exhaust yourself and still end up disappointed. So don’t worry about what people say about you. It’s hard, I know, because it feels terrible to know that people might be gossiping half-truths about you here and there. But you can’t change this and if you try you will probably make things worse. One thing that tends to make us more paranoid about this is when we ourselves do it to others. And this might be one way of helping ourselves refocus. Help other people think the best of each other. Let your talk be what you would like the talk of others to be about yourself. Whenever you talk about another person let yourself feel that responsibility. What will you do with the reputation of this person? We are responsible for each other in a significant sense and we should not allow ourselves to besmirch another person with our words. It does them damage, but it does us more damage because it shapes us into insensitive people and leaves us with a bad conscience. So don’t focus on what people are saying about you but on what you are saying about other people.
Reflect on how you speak about others.
Read Ecclesiastes 7:21-22
