Monday, May 5, 2008

#18 Action Speak Louder Than Words


Love is a verb.

Action, action, action. My mom could have told me a million and one times to pray, eat my vegetables, to say please and thank you, but if she never showed me, I would have probably been a junk food eating slob that shoved people around all day. We all need a role model that shows us how to be. Growing up, my mother didn't have to tell me she loved me. I just knew. Some adults don't understand what it means to love, as a child I probably wouldn't have understood those 3 little words. I figured it out, put two and 2 together, who else was feeding me, bathing me, protecting me. Now as I sleep deprived mother of a toddler, I get it even more. All I know is my child better one day appreciate all the night wakings, all the agony I felt because he didn't eat well despite my many attempts in a given day. I hope he just knows how much love I have for him all throughout his life, without me having to say a word.

A co-worker of mine, told me she hates going to church. When I asked why, she explains as a child her mother often scolded her and forced her to go, but never went herself. She swore when she was old enough she wasn't going to to go or make her own children go. She has given her now teenage children an "option" to go if they would like, but she stopped going a long time ago herself. Her children tell their mommy whom never went to church with them that they are not into going.

Christianity

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. -1 John 3:18

15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. -James 2:15-17


Random
They do not love that do not show their love – Shakespeare
Well done is better than well said. -Benjamin Franklin

A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain. -Arabian Proverb

Talk doesn't cook rice. -Chinese Proverb

When deeds speak, words are nothing. -African Proverb
As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. -Andrew Carnegie
People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do. -Lewis Cass

2 comments:

EatPlayLove said...

Talk definitely doesn't cook rice, or standing in front of the cabinets staring at them aimlessly for about 5 minutes wondering what to cook for dinner, doesn't get dinner made!

Rose DesRochers said...

I too give my children an option with regards to going to church. Not for the reasons that your friend has chosen though, but I believe that one comes to find God on their own not by being forced.