Proverbs 20 verse 11 says, even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right. A proverb is a very basic fact. There are some kids who are generally good kids, and there are some kids who are just bad. Now, even the good kids are sinners, and they'll have their bad moments. But our proverb is saying that those who know the child in question develop an expectation of each child by the sum total of their behavior. It's really a staple of our own culture. We see it in books, movies, and TV shows all the time. Take the show, leave it to Beaver. When I was a kid, I watched reruns of that. Beaver and his older brother, Wally, they were pretty good kids. They get into trouble, they make bad choices, and make other mistakes. That's what the show was almost always about. But through it all, no one thinks that they're bad kids. Why? Because of the sum total of their lives, their overall attitudes, and the fact that they showed humility and a willingness to apologize, to make amends, and to learn from their mistakes. Wally and Beaver were known by their doings and that their work was pure and right overall. And in the end, it certainly turned out that way at the end of the episode. But then there was Eddie Haskell. Eddie was a kid whose doings made it clear to everyone that his works were not pure or right. He was trouble on legs. And in every In our own everyday lives, there are kids that just make us smile when we see them. And then there are those kids who just kind of make you frown when they enter the room. Ironically, the man who played the role of Eddie Haskell was an actor named Ken Osman. is no relation to Donnie and Marie. But in real life, Kenny Osmond played the opposite of that of Eddie Haskell, or had the opposite reputation, anyway, of the part he played as Eddie Haskell. Easy for me to say. As a matter of fact, Jerry Mathers, who played the beaver on Leave it to Beaver, he's quoted as saying that Ken Osmond was the best actor on set because in real life, he was the exact opposite of that character, Eddie Haskell. And Ken lived that way right through adulthood. As Albert Barnes in his notes quotes the old saying, the child is father of the man. After Leave it to Beaver went off the air, Osmond had a hard time getting roles and acting in different movies and things because everyone just always saw him as Eddie Haskell. That's called typecasting, by the way. And it was so bad that Ken gave up on playing other parts and became an L.A. police officer. He grew a mustache to hide his identity, and he spent 18 years with the Central Traffic Division with the LAPD. But he didn't just hand out traffic tickets all the time. According to several sources, Osmond was shot three times while attempting to arrest a car thief who was also wanted for murder. Two bullets hit his bulletproof vest, and one of them hit his belt buckle. After that, Osmond retired from his career as a motorcycle cop shortly thereafter. The stories that I've read said he dealt with clinical depression and other things that led to his retirement. Sadly, I couldn't find any evidence that Kenny Osmond was ever saved. He passed away a couple of years ago. But the fact remains that in real life people saw him as a man of integrity. His sons praised him as a loving, caring father and he personified our proverb that even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right. He played Eddie Haskell but in real life Everybody thought he was an alright kid. He turned out to be an alright father and adult. And the lesson for us is to recognize this very fact in our own lives. If you live a life of purity and integrity, people will see you that way. If you live a life of sin and indulgence, focused on yourself at the expense of others, that's how you'll be known. As we saw in Proverbs 10, 9, he that walketh uprightly walketh surely. But he that perverteth his ways shall be known. And that's the way it is as it is written. So it is.