It would seem logical that what we believe impacts how we behave, because, quite frankly, our beliefs are the driving force in our lives. Yet, as sensible as that might sound, we do so find that there are plenty of people who profess themselves as, for instance, believing Christians, or moral agents, that through their actions and their behavior belie that very thing, by clearly doing those things which are inimical to those beliefs. In other words, they are not only hypocrites but clearly also lack the discipline and integrity to do right by their beliefs, or in some cases, don’t really care to.
This thus signifies that it isn’t good enough for children, for example, to go to a good school or to just have good parents, that teaches them the difference between right and wrong, and impresses upon them an ethical guideline about what is or isn’t appropriate, if at the end of the day, despite believing in the goodness of such instruction, they end up behaving in a way and manner that is at loggerheads to what they have been taught to believe in. This means that as much as one might wish that the right beliefs are going to make the right citizens, in actuality, how we end up behaving has a lot to do with the character of our person, in tested action. This is why we need to hold those that we care about accountable to the good beliefs that they have been taught, and to therefore correct that which is in error, before it becomes an ingrained bad habit or character flaw.
That is to say, to simply know the difference between right and wrong has its place, but if that person thus consistently does the wrong thing, then there is something there that needs to be fixed, because if not, they will continue along the same pathway, which is bad for them and bad for society. So too, whenever we take the time to reflect upon our behavior, and recognize that we have drifted off course, wittingly or not, we need to make it our purpose to make amends to return to where we ought to be so as to become that which is consistent with our good beliefs, or ever fall further into that darkness which harms our character.
It has been said, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22: 6). Yet, this may not be good enough, for lessons learnt can also be lessons lost, signifying that we as parents, or as a society, need to make sure that the lessons we believe are so important to make for a good and productive life, have indeed been ingrained into the being of those so taught, for if it is not, then the result will not be what we desired to see, which isn’t good for the person, isn’t good for society, and isn’t what we had strived to accomplished when we made up our mind that we had an obligation to get the right beliefs into our children and friends, but somehow it didn’t end up turning out right.