Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you. Tie them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man.” Proverbs 3:3-4 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “You are responsible for your reputation.”
Does it bother you when people speak ill of you? Of course it does. Nobody likes to be spoken of poorly, and down deep we all really do care what others think of us. Unfortunately we can’t always control what other people say about us, and sometimes the things they say simply are not true.
But a good rule of thumb to live by is, “Don’t worry if other people say things about you that aren’t true, just live in such a way that nobody will believe them.”
The fact is that we are all responsible for our own reputation. What other people come to think of us, and what they believe to be true about us, will ultimately be based upon how they have seen us conduct ourselves over a long period of time. You establish your reputation by the way you live and by how you treat others.
That’s the point Solomon makes in Proverbs 3:3-4. In those verses he encourages his reader to be so loyal and so faithful that it will be as if those virtues hang around your neck like a necklace and therefore never leave you. He urges us to graft those virtues into our heart, inscribe them there. We will then have a reputation of being loyal and faithful.
Later in the Proverb, in verses 27-30, he lists other virtues we should strive to cultivate in our lives. In verse 27 he urges us to be the kind of person who consistently does good things for others. In verse 28 he writes of a person who is immediately responsive to those in need and does not look for excuses to put off helping them. In verse 29 he describes being a good neighbor. In verse 30 the virtue is honesty or truthfulness. In verse 35 he concludes by saying that those who have this kind of Godly wisdom will be held in high esteem by others.
The obvious lesson of the Proverb is that we should strive to be men and women of honesty, integrity, truthfulness, loyalty, and faithfulness. If we cultivate those virtues in our lives then that will be our reputation. It then won’t matter if someone tells lies about us to the contrary, because nobody would believe such lies to be true of us.
We are all responsible for our own reputation. But don’t worry if other people say untrue things about you, just live in such a way that nobody will believe them.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 