Life Lessons From My Mom -Talk is Cheap!

The fall elections are just around the corner and we are being bombarded with campaign commercials and the endless speeches from candidates.  Each candidate promises us what they will do if elected.  At the same time, we are confronted with even more commercials and speeches to remind us of all the broken promises from current elected officials. 

On a daily basis, we are dealing with people who over-promise and under-deliver.   Delivery personnel tell us they will be at our homes at a certain time and then are hours late.  Friends tell us they will do something and for a myriad of reasons, they let us down.  Companies try to convince us that their product will do thing that they know is not possible or, at best, is a gross overstatement of what the product can actually do.

All of this reminds me of one of my mom’s favorite sayings which was “Talk is cheap. It takes money to buy land!  Mom would remind us of the importance of keeping our word.  She taught us to follow through on what we say we are going to do.

During most of my boy’s young life, I worked in a career that compelled me to travel a lot.  At one point, I was traveling about 50 percent of the time.  I could not have done it without my mom’s help.  As soon as I got my assignments to travel, I would call my mom to let her know when I needed her to come and stay with the boys or to go with me so the boys could go.  She never let me down.  If she said she was going to do come, she did it.  If, for some reason she could not do it, she would tell me right away so I had time to plan.

I have lost track of how many times a person has looked me in the eye, told me they would do something and then, didn’t do it! What has happened to integrity and honesty? The bible says, in Matthew 5:27, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” It’s just that simple.

Mahatma Gandi once said, “Be the change you want to see.” I believe a nice place to start would be by keeping your word and teaching your children to do the same.  Children crave safety. Just imagine how secure your child would feel if they knew that they could count on you to do what you say you will do.  Take some time to recall how it feels to know you can count on someone. Just think, you have the power to allow your children and other that you deal with to have that same experience.

My mom never had much money in her lifetime and most of what she gave me, money couldn’t buy.  One of those gifts was being true to her word.  Before you make another promise or commitment remember, talk is cheap, it takes money to buy land!