Words to Live By?

Have you ever really considered why that motivational poster, decorative painting of a Bible verse, or framed quote from C. S. Lewis is on your wall?

Here are a few ideas:

1. It resonates with you. Something about the challenge or subject matter strikes a chord deep inside and it serves as a reminder to live by the core conviction reflected in those words.
2. It challenges you. Instead of reinforcing a deeper conviction, this truth hits you between the eyes and encourages you to change, keep working, and not give up.
3. It’s more aspirational than inspirational. It’s your version of the “I’d like to teach the world to sing” Coca-Cola song. Something that sounds nice, but it’s not realistic. Produced by the sunshine pumpers of the world, you view these words as nice sentiment, but nothing substantive and certainly unable to facilitate change. But somehow you get credit for having it.
4. It’s passive-aggressive. You secretly believe that if those in your circle (translation: everyone but you) took these words to heart, your home or workplace would function as it should. Your spouse would change, your kids wouldn’t turn out trashy, and inner office squabbles would cease — without you ever addressing any of it.
5. Someone else put it there. Your spouse, boss, or co-worker made the call without consulting with you. As a result, it’s visual white noise that goes unnoticed and therefore unapplied.

One of the traps of living in community is the belief that the world would be much better if everyone else took those words to live by to heart and towed the line: if Loud Linda would turn it down a notch, if Micromanaging Mike would cut you some slack, if Debbie Downer tried Paxil, or if Halitosis Hank would give you a little breathing room.

What if you changed your mindset from words to live by to words you live by? Kindness, generosity, and forgiveness are easy when everyone else is being kind, generous, and forgiving. But what if you decided to live that way regardless of how others live? After all, you can only control yourself, right? And the best thing you can offer Next-Big-Crisis Chris is not reassurance, but a changed life.