Others Centered

#3 Example

I have been slacking on my Jesus Style chapter reviews.  The third section explains how Jesus taught by showing rather than telling.  It is easy to sit there and tell someone what they should do.  Jesus demonstrated to His disciples how they should live by living it out for them.  He did not show people the way but He Himself was the Way.

Jesus didn’t tell people they should be merciful, rather He showed them by being merciful.  I can somewhat relate to this on a smaller scale by my time spent as a math teacher.  I could have just sat at my desk and told the students where to find the information in the book and verbally told them how to do certain problems.  Instead, I tried to model how to do the problems by doing examples.  I demonstrated strategies by using several while they watched.  I had them do practice problems and then showed them how to solve the problem once they tried.  Where my example breaks down is my lack of patience and tendency to get frustrated when they showed no interest in learning.

People learn very quickly when things are modeled to them and this showed in the life of the disciples.  Where I relate more to the relationship Jesus had with the disciples is with my two sons.  They are ages 6 and 4 and they do everything I do.  Even when I don’t want them to learn from me, they are watching every move I make.  I heard someone say one time that our kids are like the Holy Spirit because they reveal our weaknesses to us.  I have found this to be very true.  I will hear my boys make noises of frustration that sound strikingly similar to noises I make when I am working on something around the house that isn’t quite going as planned.  I will hear them say words to each other in tones that I don’t like but realize that they probably get it from me.  Now, not all their habbits they pick up from me are bad but there are enough of them to realize I fall very short of how Jesus did it.  It does make me feel good though when I will hear them share with each other or say something to each other that I tried to model to them.  They are empy slates that right now think I am the coolest person in the world so I have a huge responsibility to help shape them and mold them into the men I believe the Lord wants them to become.

The husband/wife relationship is the same way.  I have found that if I want my wife to act a certain way or do something for me a certain way, telling her usually doesn’t end up well.  It gets me in trouble and ends up causing the opposite effect.  Instead, if there is something I want her to do, I get that result when I act that way myself.  The same is true the other way around.  When she tells me to start acting a certain way it usually doesn’t work because we are humans and are sinful by nature.

Our ultimate goal is to be more like Jesus.  How likely would that be if He would have said, “Be holy because I told you to be Holy.”  Instead He said, “Be holy as I am holy.” and showed us how to live a holy life.  He didn’t say, “Pick up your cross and go that way.” but said, “Pick up your cross and follow after me.”  Everything He did was an example and a demonstration on how we are to live.