If you walk like a duck and quack like a duck, don’t be surprised if people think you are a duck. Don’t advertise what you are not, unless you want people to think you are what you are not.

This advice can be applied to every facet of our lives. We have all known young girls who dress in such a way that they advertise something they say they are not. If they are not that kind of girl, why are they advertising that they are?

Many people talk in such a way that everyone thinks they are a certain kind of person, yet they claim that they are not. Why are they talking this way if they are not this way?

Paul tell us to ”abstain from all appearances of evil.” By the way we dress, by the things we say, we can easily give the impression that we are other than what we want God to believe that we are.

We are also known by the company we keep. If our friends are all ducks, we are almost certain to be thought of as a duck.

Are our dress, our conversation, and our friends all in keeping with our high calling? If not, why not? These things really do say a lot about us. Are we satisfied with what they are advertising us to be?

Would you want Jesus to see you in what you wear to the beach or swimming pool? He does see you even though you do not see him. Would you tell him the stories that you share with your friends when you are all relaxing in a casual atmosphere? He does hear what you say to them. Would you like to introduce your Lord to the friends you choose when you have a choice as to whom you want to be with? He does know who your friends are.

These kinds of thoughts boggled the mind of David and he says so in Psalm 139. ”0 Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, 0 Lord. You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

The Lord Jesus tells us, ”But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

God knows even what you are thinking. We need to solve the sobering problem of not being mistaken for a duck by putting bird-brain thoughts far from us.

We are what we think and what we think will affect how we dress, who we associate with, and what we talk about.

Since God knows our thoughts, let us guard carefully what we think by associating with those whose thoughts are godly. Let us be careful what we read and hear, for these things will surely affect what we wear, where we go, and what we think. If we work at it diligently, we will put away duck-like thoughts and then duck-like quacking and duck-like walking will stop.

”They that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD and that thought upon his name.”