Leaders, Not Followers

Every day before school, in the days when my dad would drop me off outside our red-brick elementary, he would say a memorized goodbye.

It went something like this:

“Hey, what do I always tell you? Be a leader, not a follower.”

That “goodbye” wasn’t just goodbye, but food for thought, a reminder that kids our age were looking up to my brother and me, without us really knowing.

There were times when I questioned what kind of impact a ten-year-old could have on an elementary school of wild and crazy kids.

But, as I grew older, I realized the words weren’t coming from my dad but from God. He had just reworded it into kid-lingo.

My dad had been referencing 1 Timothy 4:12 daily in the drop-off lane.

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” — 1 Timothy 4:12

Speech.

What does that look like?

Choosing kind words, avoiding the temptation to cuss to fit in with the upper-graders, knowing that the words and stories we tell actually impact people; therefore avoiding gossip, avoiding slander, avoiding cruelty.

Conduct.

They always say actions speak louder than words, right?

That’s what conduct references.

Deliberately acting in a way that glorifies and exemplifies Christ Jesus.

Love.

Loving everyone. Even the ones that are difficult to love. Even the ones that make recess a living nightmare.

Faith.

This was always a big one for us. Kids on campus knew we were Christians, knew we “stood apart,” and they were watching for that very reason. This meant, never shying away from our Christian faith, never denying it, even when it was hard, even when we wanted to desperately fit in. Maintaining the habits of our faith despite the world’s attempts to pull us away from it.

Purity.

This wasn’t a big one in elementary school, in fact, it wasn’t even on my mind! But, purity could look a little different than what you probably thought of immediately upon seeing the word. Purity could mean not cussing, drawing back to the “speech” part of 1 Timothy 4:12.

Even today, years and years later, my dad’s words echo through my mind. And the definitions behind the words have evolved as I have grown, too.

But the main point stays the same.

Leaders, not followers.