Misguided…Or Misguiding…
Titus 2:6-8 (Amplified Bible)
6In a similar way, urge the younger men to be self-restrained and to behave prudently [taking life seriously]. 7And show your own self in all respects to be a pattern and a model of good deeds and works, teaching what is unadulterated, showing gravity [having the strictest regard for truth and purity of motive], with dignity and seriousness. 8And let your instruction be sound and fit and wise and wholesome, vigorous and irrefutable and above censure, so that the opponent may be put to shame, finding nothing discrediting or evil to say about us.
Recently my daughter spent some time with some people she admired, loves and holds in high esteem in her life. She looked to them as an example. As the day progressed she was in observance of some things that sent a mixed message about who they really are, behind the conversation and how they were living as a Christian and an example. They had chosen to live in a particular way, and to use certain verbiage although, they encouraged my daughter not to follow in the same footsteps. The more confusing part for her was the fact that they are a professing Christian. She was confused by the example, because the words and what she saw lacked continuity.
All too often we are setting an example that reads like a self-help book written by someone that cannot help themselves. We say we love the Lord but we pick and choose what we will obey in the Word of God and what we won’t. We want to be looked at as an example, but then we encourage others not to do what we are doing, that we know is not right and encourage them to hold on to the words that are coming from our mouths, that we are proclaiming to be self-evident. What kind of examples are we setting, not just for our young people but for those who are watching us at work, church, home and in the community at large? We are saying with our mouth God is the way, the truth and the life, but we are treating people anyway, by any means to get what we want or think we deserve from a situation. We are telling our children, not to shack up, have sex before marriage and we are doing that and so much more. We are saying give and it shall be given unto us, but yet we withhold form God what is His in tithes and offering and what is rightfully do to others. We are labeling ourselves Christian, but at the first sign of trouble, we are telling people, “ I am not Jesus, or I am not God” as an excuse for our behaviors and misses( Christian, means Christ like). We are misguided in our thinking, and in turn we are misguiding so many, by the example that we are setting in how we live. We have learned to “Talk a good game,” but we still have not learned how to live the game we talk. We are supposed to yield and submit to the Word of God, the Will of God and His direction, but instead “we got our own thing.” But the saddest part about it is not the damage we are doing to our own lives but it is the damage, confusion and contradictory behavior that we are setting up as truths for people to follow.
In the military in leadership school we were told over and over again, lead by example. We were also taught that we should not expect those who follow us to do what we won’t or are not modeling in front of them. We cannot say with our mouths that we are something that are lives identify that we are not or are missing the mark totally in becoming. We don’t just mess ourselves up, but all those who come in contact with us. We have to be so careful to shine, so that God is glorified and He is seen in our lives. That saying God knows my heart, does not cut it, He may, but those who are watching you don’t. I am not saying that every day we get it perfect, but we should not be choosing to live in a place of compromise, contradiction and substandard behavior and call it a place that God dwells. Look at what you say and how you live, do the two line up with the Word of God, The Will of God and His convictions for your life, you might be surprised if you were to answer HONESTLY!
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