Imitators of Christ
- The Narrow Path
- Jan 28, 2022
- 2 min read
And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1, NLT).
Kids are so intuitive. They pick up on nearly everything happening around them, even when we are too busy to recognize it at the time. When my brother and his family visited back in October from South Carolina, it afforded me the opportunity to spend some time with him, his wife, my 4-year-old nephew, Clive, and my 18-month-old niece, Vera. Such fun, but unpredictable ages!
At one point during the week, my brother asked me to help him with some stiffness and pain he’d been having in his lower back. With Vera following close behind, we ventured off to the spare bedroom to get to work. After spending some time assessing his area of pain, I paused and stepped back to think about what to do next. Before I knew it, Vera had stepped over next to her daddy, knelt down on the floor beside him, and mimicked exactly what I had been doing just seconds before. It made me laugh—and think—all at the same time!
As I stood back watching my niece replicate my exact actions, it drew my mind to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1: And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. That’s a pretty heavy scripture right there, but I love the reminder contained within the words. How often are we mindful enough of how our actions are speaking to others? When we don’t give adequate consideration to our actions, especially around our children, we are setting ourselves up to teach them how to imitate us rather than Christ.
My niece reminded me that day of the power of our actions, especially with young children around. So often, what they see, they will do, and what they hear, they will repeat. I’m sure plenty of us have experienced this in both positive and negative ways. That day reminded me of the importance of taking inventory of my thoughts, my communication, both verbal and non-verbal, and most importantly, my actions.
As adults, when we are mindful of staying on the narrow path and allowing our actions to be reflective of the love of Jesus, only then are we able to lead our children to do just as Paul said we should: imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
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