Elements of godly living

I Thessalonians 4:11-12 But we urge you … to do this  [love one another] more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, … so that you may walk properly before outsiders …

When I think about it, the things that impress me most about other people I know, or who I watch, are the very same things mentioned in these verses.  They tell us what will help us to walk properly before outsiders, to be a good testimony to God’s love and God’s will.  They are simple things to do, easily done if one put his mind to it, and yet they are the very things we see go lacking so easily in the lives of so many around us.  It is not hard to find examples of lack of love around us, and we certainly see the results of failure to live quiet lives or to have a proper work ethic.  And without people minding their own affairs we see how well the social journalists thrive, the success of all the social media.  If I live my life by these principles, there is no question that my life will be a good testimony to the people around me.  They are not going to see it otherwise in our current society.