Imitate me…

I read this story long ago in ‘Our Daily Bread’. It seems a father after finishing the bedtime rituals for his son, thinking he had fallen asleep had made his way to the local pub to share a drink with his buddies. Suddenly he was startled by his son’s voice calling him ‘Dad’. The man was shocked to see his son and demanded to know how the son had found out his whereabouts. The son’s reply shook him up. The son said, ‘Dad when I suddenly woke up called out to you, there was no answer. Soon I found out that you were not at home. So, I opened the front door where I saw your footsteps clearly in the snow. I just followed them and they brought me here!’

When I was in the College of Engineering, Guindy studying Engineering, I did not take my studies too seriously. As I had always wanted to be a housewife, I was just studying for the degree sake and not for understanding the subjects. But I had to work after all and I later regretted not having taken my studies seriously. So, when our sons started studying, I never told them about how I fooled around in College because I did not want them to be like me. I wanted them to understand the fundamentals of everything they studied! I have to thank God that our sons turned out well in spite of me!

If we take the time to reflect on our lives, there are many things we do not want our children to imitate! Here we see Paul confidently asking the Corinthians to imitate him, “just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Only if and when we follow Christ fully we can honestly tell someone, ‘imitate me.’ All of us have a circle of influence. Our lives touch the lives of not only our immediate family but also the people around us. As believers, how we live matters because how we live shows what we believe!

My friend, God has placed us in this world as a ‘light’ to lead the people around us to Christ. The question we have to ask ourselves today is, if they follow us, where will it take them, to hell or to heaven? My prayer for each one of us today is that we will be ‘imitators of Christ’ with the help of the Holy Spirit just like Paul.

Categories: Weekly DevotionalsAuthor: Hephzibah StephenDate: 17th July 2018 Share: newsletterDisplay date: 18th July 2018

---