Actions speak louder than words! by Dr. Ghazanfar Ali Khan (Faisalabad)

If a father is smoking before his son and convincing him that you should not smoke…. Smoking is injurious to health!…. Smoking is a bad habit!… It can cause cancer etc. In this situation, is it judicious???? the person(father) is persuading his child (son) to abstain from smoking while the person (father) is doing opposite to his words.
The son may ask ….. Father! …..Why are you smoking? …..The answer may be in the form of lame excuses like ……. “I am not habitual or addicted” …. “ It is just for the time being”… “it is due to some stress/tension….. etc. Would any type of excuses be acceptable ????
If our actions are contradictory to our words……it is just like a body without soul. So, we should apply/adopt good deeds upon ourselves and then we may display it to influence others to follow. At this stage, we should ponder that we should reflect something through our actions. Our good actions and deeds pave the way to make other people act in a positive direction.
Mostly, we are habitual of giving a piece of advice to other however on the other side we are not acting upon it. Why?.... it is necessary to exhibit your good qualities in the form of practical manifestation. The reason is quite obvious that the children and young ones imitate or copy the elders. We should put some role model for them to follow. We can see a number of times that we have not used words/piece of advice for the children but children are trying to do the same what we are doing in daily routine.
How can we expect from a child to speak the truth if we are habitual of telling a lie???????
It is just like expecting sweet fruit from a plant having bitter fruit…….
With some endevours in the form of some practical examples before our young generation, we can motivate and convince them to follow the right path. Good qualities, deeds and habits like truthfulness, obedience, humbleness, courtesy, respect for others etc. should be presented through our actions. If we are abstaining from bad practices like smoking, drinking etc. ……. it will definitely motivate our children and youth to keep themselves away from bad habits.
Merely lecturing about ethics and good deeds are not enough…… Motivation about ethics and civilized behavior should be reinforced through practical examples……….because ……. Actions speak louder than words!