Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Role Models

I found out today that a really close friend of mine got some upsetting news that was really bothering him. Apparently he found out some stuff about some of his friends that wasn't all that great. He said he was disappointed in these people because he really looked up to them. He said that they were role models to him.

Now that's definitely upsetting. It's always hard to find out something sad or upsetting about somebody who you hold in "high standards." As I was thinking about this earlier, I thought of a couple lessons to take away from this situation.

One lesson goes back to yesterday in talking about judging others... Yes it's always upsetting to find out that a fellow brother or sister is doing something that we don't approve of and I think that there are times when we need to step in and do our part to help them out. BUT as we talked about yesterday, it's important to realize that you yourself are not perfect - and we must make sure we are ourselves in a position where we can talk to somebody about the wrong that they are doing...

The second lesson that I thought about for this particular situation is: You never know who is watching you or who looks up to you - therefore, we must always be "on our best behavior." Paul instructs us in Philippians 2:15 that we "Shine as lights in the world" and Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." As Christians, we have a responsibility to be an example to everybody else. We never know who is watching us and who is going to be influenced by our actions.

These are two great areas that we have to work on as we try to seek God each day.

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