Are you the type of person that talks about what you’re going to do more than you actually do it? Or do you know people like this? I sometimes fall into this category, so today’s verse really made me think.

Today’s verse is Proverbs 14:23. It says, “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” Sometimes we talk about doing something and treat it as if it’s the same as actually doing that thing. That’s lazy. Proverbs tells us there is profit and benefit in working hard, whether it results in money or in creating a better you.

Look at it this way. When it comes to athletes, we often only see short clips, the highlights of their careers. What we don’t see is the hard work they put in to get themselves where they are. We don’t see the 5:00a.m. wake-up times, the hot dogs they trade in for healthy food, the practices, the trials…we just see the slam dunks and home runs.

Or maybe you see channels on YouTube with millions of subscribers that are making a lot of money, and you decide you want to do the same thing. Then you make a video and only two people watch it, and you realize it’s not working. All we see are the videos that made it big; what we don’t see are the piles of videos that these successful people posted first that didn’t make it.

If you want to achieve anything in life, it is going to take hard work. There is profit in all toil. But just talking about it will leave you broke; it leads to nothing. Stop talking and just do it.

This Proverb directs us to not just talk about working hard, but to show it. We should let our actions speak louder than our words.

Here’s one last example: A father sent his son to camp for a few days. Upon his return home, the father asked his son about what he had learned, but his son didn’t want to talk about it. After the son repeatedly denied his requests, the father finally said, “Listen, I spent money to send you to this camp. I want to hear about what you learned. What did you decide to change?” And the son replied, “Dad, I don’t want to talk about it. I want to do it. I want you to see what I learned in my actions.”

That’s what this verse is all about. Proverbs 14:23: “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”