Daily Gratitude: Did you realize there’s a difference between these two? On the surface they seem the same.  The example given by Stephen Chandler was that when he was an alcoholic and he came into a friends house and they they gave him an alcoholic drink, that was pleasing him.  If that person instead took him to a 12 step program, they were then serving him.  Often we please others because it’s the easy way out and doesn’t make any waves.  But that’s actually doing more harm than good.  Serving others is doing the right thing for them no matter how hard it is.  This is similar to and maybe even just another way of saying tough love.  When you let others get away with less than optimal behavior (aka bad behavior), instead of ignoring and saying things like “that’s just the way she is” or even “boys will be boys” then that’s a form of pleasing.  It certainly is not serving. If you were to address someone who’s constantly yelling at you and letting them know that 1) it hurts your feelings, and 2) you won’t tolerate it any longer, then you are serving them – even if they don’t think so at the time.  Can you think of times in your life when you’ve just pleased someone and then another time when you’ve served them? Let us know.