perception is reality

In life you can only come to grips with so many truths. Like, the Gospel and God's love for you, money is the root of all evil, and perception is reality. The latter is so true and we don't even realize it. I have worked hard most of my life to make sure of this, but I have also slipped at times. There are those who only know me by the slips and that is a painful reality.
I remember playing highschool sports, and especially baseball. I can recall one particular night that we were playing against a pretty good team and I was pitching. This was a team that we had beat pretty bad the time before. I had a decent game against them the last time and I was ready for this one. There was a hitter batting third in the line-up that I had struck out 2 of 3 at bats the game before against them. I had struck him out with fastballs inside(which is usually a major no-no in highschool baseball, but I just threw what my coach had called. This time, the batter stepped up to the plate and I was told to throw a fastball outside and low and did, then change up, curve, change up and I couldn't figure out what my coach was doing. I was 2 weeks removed from having thrown several inside fastballs right by this guy and coach won't call it any more. So I shook off the pitch called(coaches hate that by the way) and I waited until the catcher(looking quite puzzled now) gave me the fastball sign, then I shook off location until I got what I wanted. I checked the runner on first and delivered what was easily going to be strike three, a fastball just inside on the hitter's hands. I let the pitch go and had just enough time to turn over my right shoulder and watch the ball bounce off the left field wall for a double. After the inning my coach let me in on a little secret. The hitter I was facing had trouble with the inside fastballs and couldn't hit the previous game because he was just coming back from a broken wrist. That slowed down his swing and allowed me to throw a fastball inside by him. You see I was basing all the at bats on my prior information, much like perception. I percieved him based on the last game we played and did not have the total picture.
Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right" (Prov 20:11).
From children right on to senior adults, we are percieved by our actions on a daily basis. The things you do today mold what people think of you tomorrow. The scary thing is that some people may only be in contact with you once, today and never again. Their perception of you does not take into account how bad of a day you are having, how rude the other people may be to you every day, or any circumstances at all. All they see is your actions, and hopefully your actions today are full of Christlikeness. That should be our perception given off, that Christ is in us and living through us. After all your actions today, tell of your relationship with Him, make them count!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!