"You Tell On Yourself"

The following poem by an unknown author gives us insight into what we’re really telling others about ourselves by how we speak and how we act:

“You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak;
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime,

You tell what you are by the things you wear,
By the spirit in which your burdens you bear;
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on the phonograph,

You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk;
By the manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf,
In these ways, and more, you tell on yourself.
So, there’s really no particle of sense,
In an effort to keep up false pretense.”

Beloved, let our lives be conducted without pretense, following the inspired writer Paul’s instructions to the brethren at Philippi:

“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets