We are always surrounded by people with good intentions.  Some of those people truly mean what they say and accomplish their goals, while others sometimes fall into the habit of not being able to follow through for whatever reasons.  Perhaps it is because they do not have good boundaries and are just trying to be nice, never actually planning on doing what they said.

Or they truly want and mean to do something, but in the end have their priorities mixed and cannot make commitments.

In any case, we have all fallen short, but it is extremely important to say what we mean and bring it into fruition—“let your yes be yes and your no be no” (Matthew 5:33-37).  To honor and love others has to be our #1 priority—if we only ‘talk a good talk’, we will soon find ourselves being dishonoring and untrustworthy to everyone around us, including our very close family and friends.

We cannot let ourselves fall into that trap—it is the total opposite of the character of God.

I recently read a book called The Noticer by Andy Andrews.   The book is about how circumstances can drastically change by simply changing one’s perspective.  In the book, the main character, Jones, aka “the noticer”, was talking to someone about intentions.

He gave this example: “If five seagulls are sitting on a dock and one decides to fly away, how many are left?” Well that’s obvious–four, right?  No.  There are still five left; just because one of the seagulls made up its mind to leave doesn’t mean it actually did.

Jones goes on to say, “Despite popular belief, there is absolutely no power in intention. Have you ever considered how often we judge ourselves by our intentions while we judge others by their actions?  Yet intention without action is an insult to those who expect the best from you.”

That’s quite a sobering statement.

If we make up our mind to do something, tell others of our intentions, but end up not carrying them out, how can we be trusted?  It really comes down to loving and honoring others, getting our priorities straight, and acting with the utmost amount of integrity.  And if we fail in honoring someone by not doing what we said we would do, let us be honest enough to tell them our choices were wrong—because after all, we always have a choice in what we do.

So, how do we go about walking this out?  Well for starters, we need to get our stories straight.  No matter how nice we sound when we say we will invite someone over for dinner,  it will leave a bad taste in their mouth when they think about how you never did invite them over.

Also, I would like to stress how important it is to keep each other accountable.  We are to lovingly judge by a person’s fruit—what are our lives producing, love and honor, or disrespect and lack of integrity?  Are we not our brothers’ keepers?  Would you not rather confront someone who is acting in a way that is dishonoring and unloving than let them continue down such path?

We are to help each other, not tear each other down, and if anything it will give a little perspective into situations that can bring about healing and reconciliation.  Confrontation is not a bad thing if carried out correctly.

And so with a final quote from Andy Andrews’ book, I hope you were able to gain something from this note…

“Most folks figure a true friend is someone who accepts them as they are.  But that’s dangerous to believe.  A true friend holds you to a higher standard;  a true friend brings out the best in you.  A best friend will tell you the truth…and a wise best friend will include a healthy dose of perspective.”

~Andy Andrews–The Noticer