Actions and Words

Note: My thoughts are WAY jumbled up in this post so I hope you can understand it and that it helps you!
As I was riding in the car a few days ago, I saw a church sign that said "Preach the gospel always; and when necessary, use words." Then a couple days later, I saw another sign that said "Show your faith by your actions as well as your words." These signs reminded me of a song I used to sing in children's choir when I was little. It's called Hippocritter. It goes: Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. You cannot hide what's inside, it's sure to come out, your words may whisper but your actions SHOUT!" All these things just reminded me that even if we say the right things, our actions are truly the greatest testimony of our faith. We must proclaim to others our faith in Christ, by acting in a way that pleases Him. If we say that we are Christians, our actions must match up with that. We must show others what our faith is all about. We must show them that we are different. Christ has saved and changed us and we will now live for Him.
This post has taken me a while to write (like 3 days), because this is something that I struggle with a lot. It's so easy to just say what we know people want to hear, but not follow it up with the actions that we know are right. We say one thing, but then turn around and do the exact opposite. We need to pray and ask the Lord to help us do the right things. He is the only One who can change us. Being a Christian isn't just about us accepting Christ's free gift of salvation. We must continue to live for Him every day. Every day is a new beginning and we can live for Christ no matter how badly we messed up the day before. If we ask Him to help and change us, He can. He will help us to witness to others through our words AND actions. What we say, how we act, what we wear, all of these things decide what a person's impression of us is. I've heard that when a person sees you for the first time, they form their opinion of you within the first 30 seconds of meeting you. I don't think that you can say much more than "Hello" in that much time, so the main deciding factors are your actions and attitude. I will definitely be praying this week and asking God to help me be a good example to others through my actions and words!
Note: Today (June 23rd) I saw another sign that said, "Preach the gospel always; open your mouth when necessary. I think maybe the Lord's trying to teach me something!! Three signs in completely different towns that say almost the exact same thing:)