Do As I Say, Not As I Do

We grew up hearing that all the time.

Perhaps nice to some in theory...but impossible in reality.

This impossibility is a good thing...hard but good.

But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." Luke 6:49

'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." Matthew 15:8-9

God wants us to be doers of the Word, not just sayers.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22

I have been meditating on this a lot lately. I know that my children are watching me. They are doing what I say...but they are also doing what I do.

I notice this when I get anxious or fearful, Michael will immediately start asking questions.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

Or if I get upset about something and act out, they will respond to my behavior.

In your anger do not sin "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Ephesians 4:26-27


My children know that we are all sinners in need of a Savior, but as I grow, I want to be modeling that Savior every day.


For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 2:23


I am asking God to show me His heart and my heart and where they are lining up and where they are not.


Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

In a Bible study I am doing with my sweet Nellie there was an excerpt from the book It's Always Something written by the late Gilda Radner (and yes I had to explain to Nellie who Gilda Radner was, man I felt old!!!) It read like this:

When I was little, my nurse Dibby's cousin had a dog, just a mutt, and the dog was pregnant. I don't know how long dogs are pregnant, but she was due to have her puppies in about a week. She was out in the yard one day and got in the way of the lawn mower and her two hind legs got cut off. They rushed her to the vet and he said, "I can sew her up, or you can put her to sleep if you want, but the puppies are okay. She'll be able to deliver the puppies."
Dibby's cousin said, "keep her alive."

So the vet sewed up her backside, and over the next week the dog learned to walk by taking two steps in the front and flipping up her backside, and then taking two steps and flipping up her backside again. She gave birth to six little puppies, all in perfect health. She nursed them and then weaned them. And when they learned to walk, they all walked like her.

This sums up so perfectly that our children are watching us and doing as we do.

A lost and dying world should be watching us as Christians and doing what we do.

Are we living a life worth watching?