A non-serving Christian is a contradiction in terms.
I think everyone does selective reading. Everybody has a filter, and that is real easy for critics to see things from their perspectives, and I'm going, I didn't mean that at all. And believers do the same.
The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears.
When you win, don't swagger. When you lose, don't sulk.
To accomplish anything you must first have a mission, a goal, a hope, a vision.
If what I do pleases God, it is always the right thing to do, and I can stop worrying about everyone else's reactions. This dramatically simplifies life.