Yesterday, I got to re-watch one of my favorite movies, Secondhand Lions. If you have never seen it, stop reading this blog and go watch it right now! In the movie, the boy has a difficult choice to make. He must choose to believe the fantastic, outrageous stories of his great uncles, or a plausible story of his mother. Spoiler alert: he wisely chose to believe his uncles. But not because their story was the most credible, but because of the actions of the uncles. His uncles were always there for him and protected him in their own strange ways. His mom, however, deserted him and repeatedly disappointed him. So this boy chose to believe the uncles based actions and not words.
Today we hear so much talk. It is on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, news channels, email, texts, commercials, memes, music, movies and TV shows. We are constantly being bombarded with an input of words. Did you know that we have ‘smart’ billboards that change messages depending on the demographic passing by? And everyone has an opinion. It never seems to stop from the time we wake until the time we lay our weary heads on our pillows. So who do we believe? Among others, politicians, pharmaceutical companies and fast food chains are working to gain your confidence and they have done their homework. They know how to gain your trust. So do we pick those who align with our own “truth”? If so, how do we know they don’t have an agenda of influence and are telling us what we want to hear to seduce us into investing with them? And what about our children? Who are they listening to?
We can, and should take control over what we read and watch. However, we do not have control over all information sources unless we lock ourselves in a closet. Eventually, seductive lies will reach our ears. The biggest lie may be the one we tell ourselves when we think that we can control all input for ourselves and our children. We can, however, teach ourselves and our children what to do with all this input. These lies must travel through our brains to change our thoughts and behavior. This is where we have control.
Two thousand years ago in a sermon, Jesus taught us how to discern truth.
Matthew 7:15-20 NLT "Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
Jesus knew then. He told us to identify the messenger and judge the message by way the messenger acts. This takes intent and purpose. Today, identifying the messenger can be difficult. In many nefarious messages we receive, the source is hidden under an alias. It takes thought to stop and analyze the source of a meme or article before we believe or repost it.
And the second part Jesus said was to judge by the way they act. Notice that He did not say to judge by agreement with your political affiliation, your personal beliefs or how well the message was relayed. He told us to judge by the way the source acts. He shifted our truth from words to actions. He intended for us to shift our beliefs from flowery words that are music to our ears to actions that we admire. Look for integrity, consistency, hard work, kind actions(not kind words). Remember, anyone can say “I love you”, but only actions prove that love.
Then we must teach our children to do the same. I can remember how my mom would analyze what people said with me. She taught me, at a very young age, to consider the source and motivations behind the words. We can’t always control the words we hear but we can control our thinking and learn to listen to actions and tune out the noise of words. And we have an obligation to teach our children to do so also.
Actions>Words