Day 78

 

Imitation

 

You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

 

1 Thessalonians 1:6

 

Ethan and I had to kill a large rat. When I say it was large I mean it was the Godzilla of rats. He was carrying a Chihuahua in his mouth. I'll spare you the gory details of the killing but I was in the back yard when I saw the malicious beast and managed to pin him to the side of the house with a stick and hollered for Ethan to come out and help me finish him off.

Ethan came to my aid brandishing a pitch fork in a menacing fashion and said something I found very amusing. He said, "I feel like an angry villager."

I appreciated the wit. It is not the first time he had displayed his ability to make insightful and humorous remarks. There was a teenage girl who went to Peru with us on a mission trip and she got altitude sickness which is easy to do when you go from sea level in Lima, Peru to a mile and a half high in Cajamarca, Peru. Later that summer on another mission trip in Tupelo, Mississippi the same girl got sick again. Ethan commented that this time she had low altitude sickness.

Where does this sense of humor come from? Well, from the time he could talk I taught him to tell jokes. On one vacation we were in the hills of North Carolina with some friends and we were in this empty barn arena. We sat in the stands and a then 5 year old Ethan took the stage and did his stand up comic routine. He told jokes like: "Where did Napoleon keep his armies? In his sleevies, of course."

So, some of his sense of humor was taught but most of it was caught. He got it from me. He is like me in so many ways yet he is different than me in some ways too (for which we can all be thankful). It is not just Ethan, a whole lot of kids grow up to be like their parents. Some consciously imitate their parents and some do it sub-consciously. I have even known a few that did not want to be like their parents but never the less wound up a lot like them.

Paul says the Thessalonians became imitators of him and the Lord. Several times Paul encourages people to either imitate him or Christ. You have to be real certain you are living the right way if you are telling people to imitate you. And you better be real certain you are living the right way in front of your children because most likely they will imitate you.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Ephesians 5:1-2

• Whom should we imitate and what relationship is it based on?
• What kind of life should we live?
• Who is our example in living this life?