Model Behavior

It never ceases to amaze me how our behavior affects those around us. Let me share an example - this past Christmas, I was out and about doing some Christmas shopping at the mall. It was busy, lines were long and I could see how impatience became a way of shoppers that day. As I went into a store that I had never visited, I watched a dad and his three children (one in his arms and the other two toddlers) enter the store and my amazement (not in a good way) began. As his children became louder and louder, the dad's voice began to raise to tell them to not touch this, not touch that, stop touching each other, stop crying. Where I normally can go about my shopping, this scene made me stop and ponder that his children were simply modeling his behavior. You see, the dad would yell at his wife who literally was in the next store. When his wife made her way back, he continued to yell at her. We tend to blame the kids for being unruly, when, in all reality, they are modeling the behavior that is put in front of them.

As parents, teachers, and role models for the kids in our lives (whether they be our own or not), let's model for them Godly behavior.