If you want to know what is important to me, don’t ask me. Watch me.
We DO what is important to us. We can say what we think other people would like to hear. We can think something is important. We can even trick ourselves into believing that something or other really is important to us. But if thoughts or words are not embodied in concrete, real-life actions, then dreams are just dreams.
If one thinks it important to take responsible care of their body by eating properly and exercising but regularly gorges on junk food and almost never exercises, then one is fooling oneself. If one thinks it important to spend quality, focused time with one’s children and then does so an average of an hour a week, said parent is living in a dream world. You get the idea.
Obviously, there are situations which preclude translating desires into actions steps. But I’m referring to concerns over which one has a significant degree of control. One has a choice to either attend to home maintenance and repair needs or to spend the day staring at the tube. Other people can usually observe the choices one makes, and so can any individual simply by looking in the figurative mirror.
A valuable occasional practice is to take a look in the mirror of one’s life. Put another way, one can examine one’s thinking vis-à-vis one’s demonstrable actions. If something thought to be important is consistently neglected or forgotten, acknowledge the fact that it’s really not important. Move on.
As a pastor for over four decades I often encountered people who proclaimed the importance of and their commitment to the church, and who attended worship regularly . . . twice a year (Christmas and Easter) . . . maybe. I felt like saying, “Why kid yourself?”
Want to know what’s important to me? Watch me.
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