Day 8: Say

The first time I ever taught an adult class at my church, the bible study I used was Kay Arthur's "How Do You Walk the Walk You Talk?"  It was a challenging in-depth study of the lifestyle of a true believer.

Although there is a lot of teaching about using your words to uplift, exhort and inspire, a believer should first make sure their words line up with their Christian walk.

I think we all know of examples of people who say they are a Christian but his or her life does not look like it.

I remember once my husband invited a co-worker to church. 

The surprising response was, "Isn't that where John (not his real name) goes? I live a life better than what he does. I don't need to go to your church!"

It makes me think of these words:  What you do speaks so loud, that I cannot hear what you say." (an abridged statement based on the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson)

I get it. I really do.  It is so easy when you've been living for God for a long time to become self-righteous and want to preach to people. But if my demeanor is unapproachable or if there is the slightest shade of "holier-than-thou" about me, people will be turned off.

My desire is to first live as close to Christ as I can get. I want to be filled with His love and His purity. Then people might listen.

~~~

What do you say? How can we get people to listen to what is on our hearts?

This post is Day 8 of a series entitled 31 Days of Life on the Journey where I share about my journey as a believer, wife, mom and grandmother.  I invite you to return each day to find the newest link here. Myquillin at The Nester is the creator of the 31 Day Challenge.  I'm linking this post to the category, "Faith and Inspiration." You can also visit Kate's blog, "Heading Home" to read the posts of all the other participants of the 31 day challenge who are writing on her daily prompts for 5 minutes. Today's prompt is "say."

Note:  If you'd like to get the Kay Arthur study, "How Do You Walk the Walk You Talk" click on the link and you can find info at Amazon.


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