Who are you when I'm not looking?

Who are you when I'm not looking?

This is a title of a great song by Blake Shelton.  And in it he talks about his wife, and what kinds of things she does when he's not watching. Like, "does she burn the toast?" Or "does she dance in her socks?" That kind of thing.

But it made me think.  What if we were all doing acts of kindness and intentional goodness when others weren't watching you.  Its easy to be nice and good when people are watching or listening.  But what about when you are on your own?


Yesterday morning I let my dogs out around 6 am.  And our biggest, and sweetest dog, our 110 lb Golden rescue dog went to the corner of our yard and just sat down.  Sat still.  Wouldn't come in.  He sat in this spot like he had done it hundreds of times before.


So I just let him, and figured he was watching something on the other side of the yard.  I happened to walk by the window when I saw it.  Our very nice but very quiet next door neighbor walked over to the fence and reached into his pocket and handed Finn a biscuit and patted him on the head.  Wow.  And I know the neighbor well enough to know that it was probably a very nice treat, nothing crazy going on, no ulterior motives for all you paranoid people out there!  Haha.

And it just struck me.  He's probably been doing this for Finn for years, and never said anything.  He's admired him before and told us he's a pretty dog, but wow.  What a kindness.  Random acts of kindness even extended to animals!  Love it. 

So, who are you when I'm (or anyone) is not looking?  Do you do the right thing? Do you do nice things even though others may never see it? 

Even at the minimum - have good manners and a smile for a stranger?  I've talked about random acts of kindness before, but what about just who you are when no one is watching.  I think that speaks louder than what you do in front of an audience. 

Think about it.  And then, while your kids are out playing, sneak a peak at them and see who they really are around others when they think mom is not looking.  Are they nice? Are they bullies?  Do they give treats to random neighbors (or their dogs)? You can learn loads about them from a birds eye view.

So, I ask you - who are you when I'm not looking??