I was playing basketball the other day with one of the players. As we were bantering back and forth he made a comment that struck a chord with me about the importance of our example in our lives because it was very telling about society today. I won't go into the actual details of the conversation but in a nutshell he automatically assumed that I was telling him not to say something that I would say myself when not in a "teacher" setting. He was mistaken, but the thought was very intriguing.
I began thinking about the importance of the teachers', parents', older siblings' etc examples in the lives of these young people (the future of our nation.) How can we expect them to listen to what we say and pay no attention to what we are doing? If we are honest with ourselves we cannot. If what we say and what we do are opposed to each other, odds are they are going to pay more attention to what we do. There will be times when even when we are doing the right thing people will assume we are not. Some of this can be prevented, some cannot. The point is if we want to help grow the people around us into men and women of integrity... we have to be that ourselves. Something that is so much easier said than done, but something that will require much effort, and might even step on our toes when we find we don't quite measure up to the standard. (I have seen that in myself often this year alone.) But if we can press on, I don't think we will be disappointed.
"Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed." ~Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)
