Family Values from Role Models
Wednesday, 11 June 2008 19:22 Glen Young
How important are role models? How much influence is exerted in our lives by these role models? If you think the answer is little to very little, then you are not a parent. Parents learn early about the influence of role models, like Ronald McDonald. If you ask a five year old where he wants to eat, do you suppose he will say McDonalds? Why do you suppose manufacturers of everything from tennis shoes to T-shirts, and fast food chains that sell everything from hamburgers to tacos, pay millions of dollars each year to get big name athletes to advertise their products? They know the power of role models. There are role models within the home. They are called parents. I once had a man tell me that he had difficulty being a husband and father. He identified his problem as stemming from the fact that his father had died when he was a small child. His schoolteacher mother raised him without a father. He understood that as he grew, he had no example in the home to show him how to love a wife or how to be a father to his children because he had no pattern from which to learn.
God gave us free will; hence, we are personally responsible for the choices we make in life. No one can justify himself or herself by blaming others or their environment. However, a large part of who we are comes from our environment. This is why Paul says, “Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
Children learn many things at the feet of their parents. I have heard it said, if you want to know what your wife will be like when she is older, observe her mother. I believe the same is true about husbands and their fathers. Whether we like it or not, as we grow older, we find many of the same habits that characterized our parents coming out in us.
If a woman is a good housekeeper, chances are her mother was too. If a man has a good work ethic and provides well for his family, chances are his father did too. If a husband and wife are openly affectionate, chances are their children will learn how to be affectionate. The opposite is also true. All the bad habits found in parents are often found in children. If parents use tobacco, their children will be more likely to use tobacco. And on it goes. It takes a great deal of effort and self-control to break these cycles.
This teaches me that as a parent I must be ever alert to my influence as a role model to my children. How then can I be the proper role model for my children?
I believe the key to this question is found in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, (which is) your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” To be the proper role model and have a home complete with moral and spiritual values, parents must forsake worldliness.
Some things, just to mention a few, which are prevalent today are: materialism, social drinking, immodest dress and dancing. Parents of teenagers are continually confronted with these worldly activities. If parents have not established a good influence over their children prior to the teenage years, they will find themselves losing in the battle against worldliness.
As a parent, do you put material things above service to God? Do you participate in social drinking? Do you dress immodestly? Do you enjoy a turn around the dance floor?
You are the most influential role model in your child’s life. Why not start acting like it? Start today, tomorrow is too late!