June 10

Jun 10 - Today from Proverbs 10 we look at verse 17
"He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray."

Influence. Because it is often subtle and indirect, we are often unaware of it. The little boy soon emulates the gait of his father. The little girl begins to repeat common phrases that her mother uses.
"Your little boy walks just like you."
"He does? I never noticed that.
"Now where did she ever pick that up?"
Are you kidding? You say it all the time."
Because influence is often subtle and indirect, we are never fully aware of how we are affecting people and events around us. We are constantly sending messages, even when we're not speaking. Our attitudes, our character, and our behavior probably have as much or more influence than do our words. It is certain that our words carry more influence when our attitudes, character and behavior support them. It's called integrity. Integrity is a morally positive word. It is derived from the Latin word integer, which means whole. You can be sure that people who display integrity are people of discipline. Discipline keeps self under control. When self insists on its own way, and indulges in everything self wants, it is self-destructive. It's one of the paradoxes of life.
Self-willed people ignore correction. Correction deprives self-indulgence because correction recognizes the rights of others. Allow me to touch on a couple of pet peeves:
The public has a right to a relatively peaceable atmosphere, void of offensive intrusion. Yet, self-indulging people insist on their right to drive around in their cars, windows cranked down, sound system cranked up, and force some of the most offensive 'music' on all the people within three blocks of them. The lyrics are offensive, the noise level is offensive, and the insensitivity for others is offensive. Does it lead others astray? Three blocks behind is the next one - just to make sure the public doesn't get used to sensible noise levels. Does it lead people of integrity astray? . . . Well, it is a temptation to make some creative adjustments on their sound system with a baseball bat, but fortunately, people of integrity have self-control.
Another intrusive self-indulgence foisted on the public is offensive language. One can hardly walk down the sidewalk or sit in a restaurant without hearing someone issue a profanity, or worse, take the Lord's Name in vain. ("Oh my God," has to be one of the most popular phrases in our nation, and it isn't reserved for praise and petition.) TV is full of profanity, but we can turn the TV off. How do we protect our children from the insensitive, self-indulgent loud-mouths in our society? Does it lead others astray? Where do you think its gaining its popularity from? Sadly, it's nothing today to hear profanity coming from an adolescent's mouth. In most cases you will discover that they first picked it up in the home. Now the public reinforces it.
As believers, it is our duty to recognize and respect the rights of others. Morals set protective boundaries. It takes discipline to stay within bounds, but in practicing a disciplined moral life we influence others to a life of respect. When people are able to observe the marked difference between a disciplined life and a self-indulgent life, they quite naturally see the benefits of the disciplined life. Even if they do not choose to immediately live such a life, they are being influenced by it. Who knows, they may eventually catch on and come around. I did.