Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. Proverbs 21:2
My pup has a new hobby. It’s something he’s just picked up in the last month and enjoys spending lots of time doing. He doesn’t realize that it won’t be nearly as fun in another month or two. Who knows, maybe he thinks he’s an ornithologist in the midst of some amazing scientific discovery because he’s now a birdwatcher.
We’ve been enjoying the birds that have been visiting us on a daily basis. Our birdfeeder went up last month and will be down again before we know it because of bears in the area. In the meantime, there are so many beautiful cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, and chickadees that have been enjoying the buffet provided free of charge. We noticed the other day that a hawk was getting ideas on a meal too, but it wasn’t necessarily from the birdseed.
The dog sits in front of the window at full attention taking it all in. Apparently, he only studies birds because the plump little squirrel that decided to get a snack didn’t impress him too much. This got him a wee bit excited causing him to try to get a closer look while leaving all kinds of nose smudges on the window.
I thought my windows were pretty clear and clean until we finally got some of that elusive sunshine. Wow! The true picture showed then. The bottom half was covered in doggie nose prints! You could barely see out it at all.
The lack of transparency with my window makes me think of today’s word. The character trait for today is Sincerity-eagerly doing what is right with transparent motives (definition from characterfirst.com).
We all want to believe that everyone’s words and actions are full of sincerity, but we sometimes know that just isn’t the case. Let’s take my boys for example. I want to believe they’re going to eagerly clean out their pockets for me to wash their clothes just because that’s the right thing to do, but get real! After cleaning out more dirty tissues and rocks than I could count, I knew something I was doing had to change since they weren’t changing. Those apologies after hearing me yelp lacked way too much sincerity.
The pocket police needed to take action…by the way, that’s me. A light bulb came on after finding allowance left in one of the pockets. Hmm, they must not have wanted that money we were dishing out. Alrighty then! It was mine again. Whoa, did that get their attention, and I had something to work with now. The creativity was coming out! I told them that every morning they had to put a dollar into their pocket. If I find it there when I go to do laundry, it’s mine. Needless to say, pockets have been emptied every night since. It’s amazing how they just couldn’t remember until their money was at stake!
How about you? Are you showing sincerity in your words and actions? Are there smudges on your “windows” that make your motives less than clear?
Let’s practice sincerity in all we do and remember that “eagerly” is also part of the definition!
