Living Examples

Romans 15:4

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Good morning Zebras,

I read an interesting fact about zebras the other day.

The article said when baby zebras are born their mothers block them from seeing any other member of the herd. They do that to ensure the baby zebra can recognize her mother’s unique pattern and not get her confused with another female zebra. For the baby it is a matter of life or death because they need to be able to recognize their mother because she is their food source.

Of course, the implications for parenting are huge. Our kids, just like the baby zebra, imprint on us and they tend to follow the example that we set. Often times I wish my kids would just “do what I say rather than what I do,” but they don’t. They are excellent little mimics and a wonderful mirror to my faults as well as my strengths.

But beyond that I think there is even a greater lesson to be learned. The Bible says that when we receive Christ we are “born again.” And with that birth comes a new life.

I am one of those people who beat the statistics and accepted Christ as an adult. I was raised in a non-Christian home and never had any Christian role models to follow. After I was saved I had no idea what I was supposed to do so I looked around at other Christians to see what they did.

Unfortunately, I got a rather muddled view of the Christian life.

Not all Christians pursue God with the same fervor so knowing who to follow is huge. Paul tells the church at Corinth to follow him as he follows Christ, to imitate his life as he attempts to imitate Jesus’. And that’s really good advice.

All of us should be trying to follow Jesus, to imitate the life of “grace and truth” He lived here on earth but if that seems too difficult for you, find someone else who is doing it and follow them.

Eventually that’s what I did and it worked out well.

Now I find that’s one of the reasons God gave us the Bible. So that we can learn from Abraham, Moses, David, Paul and others, what it really looks like to live a life of faith.

Love,
Jill