Ready for fall

Fall of last year was a magically time in my life.

It was full of the "first time doing (x) as an engaged couple" moments.

First Auburn game, first Halloween, first time carving pumpkins.

And now we get to experience it all again, doing things for the first time as a married couple.

Only this time we have a front porch where we can display the pumpkins.

And fall has always been my favorite season really. Walking out of my front door in the morning to the slightly cool mornings is like a promise now – better times are on the way.

I have a huge box full of scarves calling to be set free and a closet full of jackets begging to see the outside world once more.

I can hardly wait to buy new costumes, set out my scarecrows and fill our candy jar with Halloween chocolates. I want to have a bonfire and roast marshmallows in the crisp night air and go crunching through fallen leaves, seas of red and orange.

I want to make big pots of soup and mug after mug of apple cider and hot chocolate to enjoy snuggled under a blanket wearing fuzzy socks.

It will probably be a while before Auburn, Alabama is completely done with 80+ degree weather. It's fine – I can be patient. But I sure will welcome it with open arms.

Where shopping is a pleasure

Thursday evening I was on my way home from work, eagerly anticipating an evening with my husband and a couple friends of ours watching the SEC football season opener. For those of you who don't know, I have about a 50-minute commute. But I was on the last 15 minutes or so when I got on the phone with Christopher.

"Hey, can you pick up some lighter fluid on your way home?"

A simple enough request. "Okay, where do I get lighter fluid?"

"Walmart."

Cue my morale sinking into the soles of my feet. The last thing I want to do right now is go to Walmart. "Okay, sure thing. Be home soon."

So I'm driving along, thinking about how much I don't want to go to Walmart. By my calculations, I am about 15 minutes from home. Also by my calculations, this 'simple enough' trip to Walmart is going to turn that into 40. I'm contemplating how I won't be able to find a parking spot, how annoying people will have their carts parked in the middle of the aisle, how I won't be able to find what I'm looking for and there won't be anyone to ask. How there will only be one lane open and 20 people in it. I'm getting more grumbly and sullen by the minute.

That was when I passed Publix.

I hung a right and pulled into the parking lot. Punt this - I ain't going to Walmart.

I got a relatively close parking spot and walked inside. It was brightly lit, clean and sparsely populated. Unfortunately, unlike at Walmart, I had no idea where to even begin to look for lighter fluid. However, in the space of time it took for me to look left, right, and then left again, a friendly Publix employee walked up.

"How are you tonight ma'm? Can I help you find something?"

I'm already inwardly grinning smugly at my ingenious decision to skip the Walmart mayhem. "Lighter fluid?"

She scanned the aisles quickly. "It's on aisle 7, at the very end next to charcoal."

The last time I asked a Walmart employee where something was (after I had already looked for it myself, and explained to her where I had looked), she spent five minutes looking on the same aisle I had already searched through before deciding Walmart didn't carry that product or they were out.

Thanks.

I pick up my lighter fluid, no problems, and breeze through the store quickly adding Kleenex, cookies and a bag of chips to my total purchase. By the time I reach the front, my arms are pretty full, but I don't care, because I'm done in about five minutes and haven't had the urge to roll my eyes once.

As I approach the cash registers, two employees are standing at the end of their respective check out lines. You know why? Because they aren't cram-packed crowded with people trying to buy 50 items in the 20 item or less line. Because they actually have more than one lane open.

I'm trying to quickly decide which check-out to use when one of the cashiers speaks up. "Ma'm, can I get you a cart?"

When was the last time a store employee offered to get you a cart?

I tell her I'm through shopping, and we make polite conversation as she checks me out. A bagger, with a smile, places my four items in a bag. As I'm about to leave, the first employee, who told me where to find lighter fluid, walks by. "Ma'm, did you find the lighter fluid alright?"

I'm mentally racking up point after point for Publix over Walmart. "Thank you, I did."

In short ... I love Publix. It really was a pleasure. Walmart may have cornered the market on "always low prices" but I'm not sold on believing that saving money=living better. I just might be willing to pay what Publix charges for the feeling I had when I left.

And that's the way it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgymlJ4mbgg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEHM4V3HG_w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHkqGgPpQOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtAwOpQBYPI

A month and then some

I have now been married for 39 days.

Does it feel like five and a half weeks? I don't really know. It sure has been jam-packed.

Our duplex is finally looking so nice with a little help from friends and parents, along with a few early mornings/late evenings/working on the weekends. It's hard working full time out of town and still being a good housekeeper and such, but I think I'm getting the hang of it! Christopher is really good about helping out, and that is huge.

One of my favorite things about having our own place is having company. So far we've had the college kids over to hang out a couple times, two of our friends over for burgers and three friends for Hamburger Helper and corn muffins. Tomorrow we're having a dear family over for hotdogs on the grill. I'm just so excited to be able to host people! That can also be hard, when I rarely get home before 8 p.m. But again, we're getting the hang of it.

Christopher and I will have our first "adventure" this weekend as a married couple (grocery shopping, bill paying and dishwashing have been their own kind of adventure, sure, but let's not count that). Auburn's first game is Saturday, so we're headed to Atlanta for the Clemson game! It's our first away game, and we're both pretty excited. Let's just hope Auburn starts the season off with a victory. War Eagle!

Well, if any of you ever want to come down to see us in Auburn, please do! As I've said, I love having company, and we even have a guest bedroom! Come see us!

One of my all-time favorite football game pictures – from October of last year.

She's back!

I know, I know – I haven't written a blog in two months.

You may find this hard to believe, but I got a little busy – starting a new job, planning a wedding, having that wedding, taking a trip to Disney World and then trying to start a home and life together with my new husband hasn't left me with a lot of spare time.

Consider that previous paragraph your recap of what's been going on in my life. A lot of you probably expect me to talk about the wedding, or the honeymoon, or our duplex or even my job. But I'm not going to. It's just too much, and I wouldn't know where to start, where to stop, what to include and what to leave out.

So if you want to hear more about my life, give me a call! Or send me an email. I'd love to talk to you about it – that's just not what I want to use this blog for.

All that being said, what do I want to use this blog for? This post, at least, may be a little rambly. But what I really want to do is get back to my thought of telling you about my everyday adventures. Take this morning for example.

It's my weekend to work (again, call me and I'll tell you all about the job I've been doing for the past couple months). This morning I was assigned to cover Muster on the Tallapoosa at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.

It's been a bit of a soggy morning, and the turnout wasn't great. But boy, did I enjoy myself. When's the las time you watched cannon or musket demonstrations from only a few feet away? And since I was on the clock, I had the added excitement of getting to take some great pictures with one of the office cameras.

One of the great things was seeing the kids who were there, learning about Creek history. As event organizer Ove Jensen explained to me, that may be a moment that stays with them forever. Some of those kids may study history, or become park rangers, or become any number of things based on what they saw this morning.

Of course, some won't. And maybe none of them will. But at the very least, they had a real-world experience. I worry about today's kids, that all they experience is video games of one form or another. People probably said that about my generation too, but I just see it so much now that I am a sage old 20-something. It was just nice to kids out in the world, learning about America's past, talking to people who have passion.

I would have stayed longer and learned more if I didn't have more events to cover this afternoon. Horseshoe Band National Military Park was well worth the drive, and I hope Christopher and I can go back for their big event in March. If you are in Alabama, especially the central-southeastern area, you should definitely make the trip out there.

Folks, I'll try not to wait two months before another post. Thanks for bearing with me. Love to you all!

(Just a teaser... Here are a few of our pictures from Disney World!)

This is home

As I have slowly transitioned out of school and into my full-time job (which, by the way, is fantastic), now and again people have asked me, "Now, when are you going home?"

They mean back to Sparta, and I've had to come to terms with the idea that I'm not going home.

At least not in the way I have in the past.

There is no more going home for several weeks over the summer. "My bedroom" is much more of a guest room now, where I stay when I happen to be home.

There's an awful, depressing finality to the thought "I will never go home again."

But that's only because that's thinking about it wrong.

The most popular home cliche says Home is where the heart is.

Well, that thought's a lot more cheerful, because that means I have many homes. I have left a piece of my heart in many different places.

I am at home in Auburn.

I also have a home in Selma, even though I was only there for 10 weeks.

I was in London even less time than I was in Selma, but I still feel that it's my home too.

Of course I have a home in Moulton. That's where my second family lives.

Best of all, I'll always have a home in Sparta, Tenn. Even if I never get to go back for a summer, Sparta is home. People I love are there, and that means a big piece of my heart is still there.

And I also have a new home in Alex City, where my new job is. So the truth is, I get to go home almost everywhere I go. I don't have just one home, because home is where your heart is.

"Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in." ~Robert Frost

One of my absolute all time favorite songs is about home. I usually turn to it as I roll off Highway 111 on my way to my Sparta home. Switchfoot says

"Oh, this is home. Now I'm finally where I belong, where I belong. Yeah, this is home. I been searching for a place of my own, and now I've found it. Maybe this is home. Yeah, this is home. 

And now, after all my searching, after all my questions, I'm gonna call it home. I got a brand new mindset, I can finally see the sunset. I'm gonna call it home."

#lovemyjob

I received this email from my boss. This essay was written in response to a question about the future of community journalism. THIS is how I feel. This is why I love what I do.

By Dolph Tillotson

I think we should shut our ears to the buzz of distraction and focus on what we do best -- tell stories, engage readers, help to build communities.

Smaller newspapers like their big-city brothers are struggling with change. In fact, I think anyone in business these days is facing the same struggle. Name a business that is not struggling in 2012 to cope with the pace of change. I can't think of one.

However, it's also true that community newspapers face a different and somewhat less daunting set of challenges than metro papers do. 

Our enterprises are smaller and more manageable. Likewise, our cost bases are smaller and more manageable. In addition, our markets are smaller, better defined and much easier to serve.

These days, the name of the game in the news business – at least as it is practiced outside of Washington, D.C., and New York – is to be focused locally. The cliché of the month in our industry is "hyper local." Interestingly, community newspapers have always been hyper local, something metro papers apparently are just discovering.

There's a practical reason for that. It is much easier to deliver a clearly identifiable and highly localized package of information tailored to the needs of readers in, say, Nacogdoches, Texas, than to do the same thing in Houston.

Consequently, most of our 15 community newspapers still operate at profit margins that would be enviable in other businesses. Those margins may be less than they were five years ago, but they're still respectable enough to attract investors and buyers for community newspaper companies. Actually, our company is forecasting in the year ahead that our business overall will be a little better than this year, and that's encouraging.

Having said that let me also say emphatically that small-town newspapers face their own challenges. The last thing anyone in our business should do is to become complacent. 

We should be working every day to deliver more local news and commentary across more different media platforms to more and more readers. We should strive every day to tell stories more completely and more compellingly about the communities we serve than anyone else can. We should fight – and I use the word “fight” deliberately – to inform, engage and even inspire readers as never before. 

Sometimes, it seems to me that our industry has lost focus. Our publishers and editors have been pummeled by the rapid pace of technological change, by the media's fixation on Internet competition, by the advent of mobile phone and iPad apps and by the ongoing debate over whether or not to charge for Internet access to our products.

With those hornets buzzing in our ears, it's too easy to lose sight of the fact that our job is much the same as it has always been. 

The media platforms may change, but we are essentially storytellers. 

That mission – telling stories – is a function that is basic to the human condition, and it has been since our ancestors gathered around campfires in the days before writing. It's still basic, and it's still vital. Community newspapers are the one medium in the world that can give small towns focus and a forum, a careful and caring focal point for discussion of the crucial issues all communities face.

Certainly it is our challenge to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. No doubt about it. However, it may be an even more important challenge to fight the distractions and stay focused on job No. 1, which is to tell stories more completely and in more compelling ways.

Our company owns 15 community newspapers from Georgia to Del Rio, Texas. Yesterday, more people read the content we generate, in print and on the Internet, than ever before in this history of those 15 newspapers. Even more will read what we write tomorrow. That story is the wonderful news about community newspapers that no one seems to be telling, and we should be shouting it every day.

We should not retreat, as some in our industry seem intent upon doing. We should take a collective deep breath and fight back with all our heart and energy -- fight back against complacency and boring stories told boringly.

We should focus on being the beating heart of each community we serve. We must be the lifeblood of the dialogue and progress in each community. We have to be not just competent but passionate about the job before us.

I think community newspapers have the chance to thrive for many decades to come. The chance. The opportunity.

Whether community newspapers seize that opportunity depends on how well those newspapers are run, how vital they are. I can’t wait to see how that story turns out.

Dolph Tillotson is the former publisher of The Galveston County Daily News in Galveston, Texas, and a former president of SNPA.  He can be reached at dolph.tillotson@galvnews.com

Comin' Clean

It started when I wanted to vacuum my car out before my first day of work. It's needed it for a while, and I just wanted to try to get all my ducks in a row.

I figured the car wash at the gas station where I was going to fill up my tank would have one of those big vacuuming machines.

No such luck, but fortunately our apartment complex had a couple. Unfortunately, I burned a dollar discovering neither of them worked.

After trying out the Grub Mart (neither of which vacuums worked) and the three-minute express car wash (which was closed on Sundays), I finally bit the bullet. I paid $7 to the Goo Goo Car Wash for unlimited washing and vacuuming.

I really had no intention to wash my car today, although it certainly needed it. But I wasn't about to pay $7 for just vacuuming, no matter how unlimited it was.

I've never washed my car before, myself. So it was sure to be an adventure. Thankfully the wash station had simple, straightforward directions to getting your car squeaky clean.

I've gotta say ... there's something strangely satisfying about washing a car. I pre-rinsed, I sudsed, I foam brushed, I power rinsed. It was fantastic. I probably could have done a better job, but I felt pretty good about it. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that after vacuuming out the entire car, I decided to go wash it again.

Hey, it was unlimited.

So I probably didn't know the best job ever, but I'm fairly certain the car was cleaner than I was by the time it was all over—chalk it up to the wind blowing the sudsy foam back in my face or the humidity making me nearly as wet as the sprayer was making the car.

But I got it done. And I'm fairly sure I did better than these guys:

Have a happy week!

Memorial Day

I don’t recall, in my life, ever having been a part of any Memorial Day ceremony. Maybe I have, and I've just forgotten.

At any rate, Auburn has an event of this sort each year. I KNOW I haven't been to the one in Auburn, and this year I decided to go.

I’ll admit I had double motives. I needed a project for which I could shoot some video and brush up on my editing skills before starting my new job at The Alexander City Outlook next week. I thought Memorial Day might provide some great footage.

Unfortunately, I was nearly thwarted by my own lack of preparation. Here's a helpful hint for you: never assume your technology will always be ready and waiting for you. Ten minutes before time to leave, I decided to give my camera and video camera a once over.

Camera battery: dead. Video camera battery: dead.

I gave them a quick charge for ten minutes and then bolted.

Camera in tow, I walked on the scene at the intersection of Glenn Avenue and ... some other road. Ross, I think. The police had the streets blocked off, and several dozen people were gathered in the heat to observe Memorial Day.

The ceremony was much shorter than I had expected. Nevertheless, I was able to get some video and stills and pull together a project.

Sadly, I have been unable to figure out how to upload it to this blog. I think I must not have chosen the best method for exporting, because the file size is much too large to be compatible with anything.

So, if you want to see my one-minute photo/video slideshow, I guess you'll have to just come visit me and check it out on my laptop.

For now, you can enjoy a few of my still shots I incorporated into my project.

Memorial Day. It’s one of the three days out of the year when the nation puts a collective effort toward honoring our military (the other two being Independence Day and Veterans Day). This being the case, my dear fiancé decided to open a big slimy can of worms on Facebook by asking what part patriotism/nationalism has in the life of a Christian.

As you can imagine, the query elicited some varied comments, though not heated, I’m thankful to say.

In case you’re curious, I will give you my take on it.

I think there can be a place for patriotism in the life of a Christian, as long as love of country does not overshadow love of God and man in general (cf “the first and greatest commandment” and “the second is like unto it,” Matt. 22:36-40).

There can be a lot of different facets to this discussion, and I don’t really want to go as deep into it as whether it’s a sin to be in the military or whether or not all governments are from God.

What I will say is this.

I am proud to be an American, but I am blessed to be a Christian.

I love this land, but there’s an even greater Land of the Free where I hope to go someday. The USA is beautiful, but that Place is –out of this world.–

I am grateful to the men who have fought and died and are still fighting and dying to protect my freedom from oppression by other nations, and I pray that God will protect them. But I owe everything to the Man who didn’t fight and died to give me ultimate freedom from oppression by the Devil. They protect my life, but He protects my soul.

Paul advertised his nationality as a Roman, but he valued his citizenship in Heaven (Acts 22, Phil. 3:20). Memorial Day may only come once a year, but the day for memorializing our Savior, Sunday, comes every week. Let us always keep our priorities in order!

Summer Saturday

It's been a while since I had a completely free Saturday, so I knew I wanted this one to be special. The question was how to spend it. I didn't want to waste the beautiful weather so I decided to have a "backyard adventure" at Chewacla State Park.

Chewacla is just minutes from my apartment, and it's full of fun and beauty. I started my morning there with a picnic lunch at the base of the waterfall. A ham sandwich and grapes and cookies just tastes so much better outdoors.

The waterfall area was a bit crowded, so after my picnic I moved downstream a little to a more private area.

I was just enjoying it, but thinking about this blog and wishing pictures had sound, so you could all experience the rush of the water and the crickets...

Then I remembered that I had the ability to shoot and upload video. So, for your listening pleasure:

I couldn't resist slipping into my flip flops and wading a bit in the cool water. I thought about wading all the way down the river, but concern for my iPhone and camera led me to eventually continue on foot.

Though I've been to Chewacla at least half a dozen times, I've never hiked beyond this wading spot. It was so nice. Quiet. I saw a lot of great wildlife!

These little beauties were everywhere!

I wasn't quick enough to get pictures of the lizards, but I did almost step on this little guy.

Love these pretty purple flowers, though I don't know what they're called.

After my hike, I headed back to the base of the waterfall for a snack. Oatmeal creme pie, diet mountain dew and people-watching—great way to end my one-mile hike! The waterfall was less crowded, so I snapped this photo for you guys:

As I headed back up from the waterfall, I noticed a little side trail I had never seen before. It looked out over which the body of water from which the waterfall flows, and it was there that I saw them: the paddle boats. I knew I had to rent one. Half an hour and $5 later, I had my own little paddle boat.

The boat-renter guy was a bit dubious about me taking one out alone, but I handled it pretty well! It's easier to paddle with two, but I still enjoyed myself. It was nice to put forth a little physical exertion that had nothing to do with schoolwork or journalism. I must have looked pretty rough when I got back though, because Mr. Boat-Renter Guy offered me a bottle of water.

I had a great day. Chewacla has a lot more to offer than I had the energy to enjoy in one day, so I definitely want to go back soon with my sweetie. Maybe we can take out a canoe or enjoy a game of tennis or Frisbee...maybe one day we could even rent one of the little cabins and hike some more of the trails.

The best part is, I had almost a whole Saturday of entertainment for only $8 dollars, not counting the price of groceries for my picnic lunch. Cheaper than a movie or bowling. Cheaper than the zoo or an aquarium or something, especially considering how far I'd have to drive to find something like that. And I had loads of fun!

It just goes to show you—you can have a fun adventure, right in your own backyard.

Past the future

I have been an alumna of Auburn University for two and a half days, and I gotta tell you ... It feels good.

It's strange though. Four years ago, I never could have imagined I would be where I am today. Oh, the graduated-from-college thing, sure, I could have imagined that. But when I think about all I have accomplished in the last four years, it's kind of amazing.

I've traveled to London. I've worked as a counselor at summer Bible Camp. I've had my faith tested, and come out better on the other side. I've gotten engaged. I've made friends, lost friends, and made new friends—some of the best I've ever had.

I feel like I've really grown into myself. Seventeen years of organized education has led me to where I am today.

And it's a pretty wonderful place to be.

I feel so blessed. So blessed by the opportunities God has afforded me—the things He's allowed me to learn, the places He's allowed me to go, the people He's allowed me to meet.

And now ... everything changes. Of course, things are always changing. But right now I feel like my life is two unequal halves: everything that has been up to now, and everything that will be from here on out. 

But then again, isn't that always the division of life?

I'm now in what a few years ago was a dizzying, fuzzy abstract: 

The Future

And now still more future lies ahead. I suppose I'm rambling now, but just looking at where the past few years has brought me, makes me that much more excited about where the next few years will take me. So I ask you join me on a journey that will take us past the future.

———

In other news, I think I've avoided writing much because I wasn't sure my life was really exciting enough to write about. I don't want this blog to become an online journal. Rest assured you will never see posts like this:

Today I woke up and had a scone and bacon and strawberries for breakfast. They were so delicious. I decided to sit down and update my blog before work; I think I'll try to squeeze in a bubble bath before I head to Opelika to interview some Relay for Life volunteers.

Although it's all true, I'm not sure it's exciting enough for a blog. The only two blogs I currently follow are my friend Rachel's—who is chronicling her new life in New Zealand—and my friend Emily's—whose travel blog is currently filling up with stories of Iceland.

Compared to that, my bubble bath is hardly adventurous.

But I want to welcome you to my world of Backyard Adventures. We all have stories that seem more interesting to those who weren't here to share them with us. So from now on, I will be searching out and sharing the adventures of my life. 

Stay tuned, and please feel free to share backyard adventures of your own!

It all comes down to this

In 22 days and 17 hours, I will reach what I currently see as the pinnacle of achievement.

Graduation.

I've been in organized schooling for the past 17 years. I can't remember a time when a new set of classes didn't roll around every August, and now... It's all coming to an end.

There are plenty of milestones in life. I'm sure there will be many more in mine. But I can't help but feel that I will have really accomplished something, earning that diploma.

And yet...I keep remembering the words of the Wizard of Oz.

Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.

I guess what it comes down to is, a diploma doesn't mean much unless you do something with it. Additionally, having a diploma isn't enough to prove you have a brain (as demonstrated by the Scarecrow's treatment of the Pythagorean theorem).

So my goal?

Be the total package. Don't let 17 years of education go to waste. Make something of myself. Think deep thoughts ... but don't stop there. 

Here's to the rest of my life!

Do as I say, not as I do

Has someone ever said this to you? "Do as I say, not as I do?" It's a little tidbit of advice that we throw out offhandedly when we want someone to follow our words, not our actions—but I have to believe that even as we say it we realize the problems with this little gem.

Because the person who frequently employs this phrase, we commonly refer to as a hypocrite.

Hypocrisy is something we take very seriously, and yet something that occurs shockingly often in our society.

Perhaps the counterpart to "Do as I say, not as I do" is "Actions speak louder than words." Have you ever seen someone do something contrary to their speech, and thought, "Oh, but they SAID xyz, so I know where they really stand it"? Isn't it rather the other way around: we juxtapose what people say with what they do, and judge them by their actions?

Edmund Burke

"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises; it costs nothing."

We can spot hypocrisy a mile away, and even my only 22 years of experience has taught me that we consider it a great personal affront. It's basic deception at its finest, and the feeling of betrayal descends quickly when you discover you have been duped by words that don't match up with action.

In some ways, I think hypocrisy is the greatest threat to the cause of Christ. While some see the work of murderers and refuse to believe in a God who allows such things, many more people see the hypocrisy of those who claim to be Christians and find reason to give up on the church. How many times have you heard someone say something to that affect? "I would go to church, but it's full of hypocrites."

What a value we place on sincerity!

The Bible addresses hypocrisy, in multitude of locations, like when James explains true faith is based on works:

James 2:15-16

"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?"

Jesus often referred to the Pharisees as hypocrites when he addressed them, because they would say one thing to the people, but then do something else. In fact, Jesus even employed the idea of "Do as they say, not as they do" in speaking to his followers!

Matthew 23:3-5

"Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men."

This is what I'm talking about when I say hypocrisy is going to ruin the church. People who call themselves Christians, but then fail to practice what they preach, become the standard to say, "Look, the church is full of hypocrites." And we hate the bitter taste that hypocrisy leaves in our mouths. As it's commonly said, if you're gonna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk!

Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. And to cease being hypocritical and convince others of your sincerity is incredibly difficult, because they will always, always be watching for if you will DO something that conflicts with what you SAID—and the second you do, all your grand words are discounted.

William Hazlitt 

"The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy."

You want people to follow you? Then ... Do as you say, and they'll do as you do.

Not as catchy, but I think it'll work.