What example are you setting?
You may not realise it, but younger Christians are looking up to you.
A lot of the time, we want to be like someone we admire, someone who has come before us and done that same thing.
- Little girls and boys see superheros on TV and want to be like them.
- Young kids see their mum and dad getting ready for work and want to dress up and be like them.
- Teens see the latest celebrity, pop star or movie personality and want to be like them.
It is human nature that we copy those who we think are great, awesome or going places.
Who's copying you?
Have you ever thought about this copying idea before? Have you ever realised that your actions and decisions are being watched and potentially copied by the people who look up to you?
You might be thinking – “me, no one looks up to me…”, but stop for a moment and think.
- Do you have little brothers or sisters?
- Do you lead at crèche or kids church?
- Are their people in your home group at school who are younger than you?
Believe it or not, a lot of the time these younger people look up to you and very often will mimic what you do or they will want to copy you.
So think about this, if we are Christians, then most probably we will have younger Christians looking up to us at church, at school, in our families. This is actually part of being in God’s family.
We will have older Christians that we look up to and there will be younger Christians who look up to us. So it is important for us to make decisions and live lives that glorify God. Primarily because this is what God calls us to do, but also because we want to be good examples to those who follow us. We want to be wise and think beyond our own situations and look to those around us, to consider how our actions may affect them.
What example are you setting for others?
Now, this doesn’t mean you have to live a perfect life, because we know that no one is perfect except Jesus, but it does help us to want to live in a way that pleases God and serves Him. It also helps us to think about how we belong to the body of Christ and how or lives are no longer to be lives out for ourselves, but for God and for others.
Here's a couple of questions for you to reflect on:
- What examples am I setting for younger Christians who are coming after me?
- How might the decisions I’m making affect the decisions of people who might be looking up to me?
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