Practically everyone who ever tried to accomplish anything significant faced some type of criticism. We must not allow our critics to deter us from our mission to serve God and to make disciples.

Here is what President Theodore Roosevelt said about critics: “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

“…We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”—1 Thessalonians 2:4.