How many times have we ever promised to ourselves and to someone else that we would do this or we would never do that? In all honesty, I can hardly count how many times I have let myself and others down. I could barely even detect from within that I make empty promises over and over and over after promising (here’s another one) myself that I would become better by not doing it anymore.
Every person has a blind spot when it comes to their own flaws and no one is exempt. I began to realize I was one “promise fudger-upper” when it was being done to me. It was so easy for me to rant about how it sucked when I myself have done it countless times to people without even realizing it. Well I did realize it but it is one of those “hard habit to break” type of things.
I carefully rehearsed in my head how I was going to give the person who let me down my piece (believe me it was far from being peaceful). I still am wondering whether my motive was to rebuke the person to prevent it from happening again or whether to tell the person off as if to pass on a guilt trip. For me, I believe it was the former. When left unresolved, it could lead to something really serious as in, neglecting to take care of someone when they are sick or something of the sort.
I am now faced with another realization that if I do not change my ways, I will appear to many as one big hypocrite. I openly admit that I am a Christian (which by the way means to be a follower or Christ, and doesn’t mean belonging to some kind of religious institution as some seculars put it) but because of my humanity, I find it very difficult upholding my resolve to follow Christ especially when there are so many things I need to realize in order to even do something about it. I am absolutely sure no one in this world ever intends to be a hypocrite. God knows this full well.
Now that I realize this, how many times have we said to ourselves and to others that we would do this and that for God? Since God is omniscient, I can imagine how it must grieve God when He sees that we don’t even follow through what we intend, and at the same time, we would look foolish most especially if enacting the intent is not even found in the back of our own intention.
In conclusion, talk is cheap… real cheap. I couldn’t agree more with the cliche that actions speak louder than words. Unless we are willing to walk the talk, we are better off keeping our mouths shut. It’ll save some hurt feelings and it sure could lessen to tarnish one’s integrity.