I had a professor in college who continually taught that “It is not what you say but what you do that counts.” That standard, he believed, could be applied to judging how you treat your mother, how a leader leads his country, or to how a nation acts in the international world.

President Obama’s two terms as President ends tomorrow, and while it will take time to fairly judge how well or poorly he lead the nation, in his Farewell Address he has given his version of what he believes he has done and what he has learned in the process.

I had not listened to nor seen Pres. Obama’s Farewell Address until yesterday. If you have not seen nor heard it, it is worth the 51:25 minutes it takes to listen to and watch it:

President Obama’s Farewell Address

Now we have both his words and his deeds by which to begin to judge what kind of President he has been.

Tomorrow, President-elect Trump’s will be sworn into office. He has already surprised everyone with his victories over the other 16 Republican presidential candidates and with his electoral victory over Hillary Clinton. What he will do as President, not what he says, is now what will be most important.

In some ways he has already begun his Presidency with his choices of those who will help him run the country – his Vice President, his Cabinet officers, and his White House staff. Now his Inaugural Address will give us a further idea of what kind of President he plans to be, what he says he will do, and perhaps how he will do it.

Let’s listen to his Inaugural Address and then focus on what he does and not on what he says.