We’ve all heard and/or used phrases such as:
“Put your money where your mouth is,” or
“He can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk,” or
“Your actions speak louder than your words.”
We all know that talk is not as valuable as action, and yet it seems that most of us prefer the talking over the taking action… and as we read this quote from over 500 years ago, it seems that this is a long-standing problem:
If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations. On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived.
–Thomas à Kempis
It is not how well we speak, but how well we live for God.