Setting an Example for Others

I talked with my friend, Woody, on Monday.

He is a country boy who lives in New England. I live in the sunny, hot south so we compare the weather as we talk. Monday it was cool and a hint of fall was in the air there. While I envy Woody that nice weather now, when it is cold and snowy for days in his territory during the winter, we are in shirt sleeves here most of the time.

Woody is a very talented and insightful technical assistant for a grant I work with. He has a young son, Max, whom he loves and adores. Woody and I have shared stories about our boys. Though mine son is almost 24 now, I have been able to share some of my parenting “tricks of the trade.” Though Woody is quite capable of being a great dad without any of my advice, he listens and shares his experiences as well. We have learned from each other.

Woody and I have something else in common. We hate bugs. He has not experienced the large, black palmetto bugs we have here in the south – at least not yet. He is due to come to South Carolina soon for a visit and may be able to see what I mean about the creatures. He, however, has his set of Northern bugs that make him cringe.

“Max is in the “save all living things” stage.” his father explained Monday. Woody was about to kill an ant that had invaded their space and Max interrupted him to say “If you kill it, it won’t live anymore. It will be all done.”

Now Woody, wanting to be a model father, did not crush the ant but picked it up and took it outside. He let it go in front of Max who was quite pleased. It was a teachable moment for both of them.

I suspect that we all start out our day wanting to be a role model for others…especially our children. The very nearness of them can help us stop and think about what we are doing. But then, as we know, there are times when no matter who is there, we are not the person we want to be. Some of us model what we should often during the day. Others of us have a hard time just modeling positive behavior even once.

My wish for you today: That you are a positive role model for someone and that they learn a little more of what love and caring is about because you crossed their path.

~Joellen

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 9:45:pm and is filed under Parenting & Families, Teens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.