Example

An interesting quote from Albert Einstein which you may have heard before goes like this "Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach”.  I fully admit that I use this quote regularly from the point of view of the teacher and more recently I have been paying attention to it from the position of a student.  

Jude recently put up a post from JP Moreland's book which provoked a few more questions for me.  In response to Moreland's quote on the Christian mind I asked myself "What kind of person do I want to be and how badly do I want it?"  I also thought it beneficial to share this with my household so I printed Moreland's quote and my question out in large font, landscape orientation, and stuck it to our refrigerator (aka the local blog spot of our home).  I'm hoping to generate some discussion with my two sons.  

Here's the problem - it is very difficult to get past the first part of that question (What kind of person do you want to be) without a frame of reference.  For a quick example, if you are unaware that the world record for the 100m is 9.69 s, you might be satisfied with your current personal best of 13.4 s (alright I'm slow).  Furthermore, if you know that Usain Bolt holds that record, you might be able to pick up a few pointers from him - study his tape, listen to him at a 100m conference or read his book.  You might also get some idea of "the price he was willing to pay to order his lifestyle appropriately" to achieve that goal.  So I've started writing a table listing the spiritual fruits, virtues, Godly attributes on the vertical axis and 3 columns (Bible character, non-Bible deceased Christian, and living Christian) to remind myself of real people who I should be striving to follow as role models in as much as they imitate Christ.  I'll post the table when a few more blanks are filled.

I Cor 11:1  Be imitators of me as I am of Christ - Paul-