COPYCAT

The oldest of my six children when they were young.

     "Stop that!” Insisted the tiny yet determined pig-tailed brunette.

     "Stop that!" mimicked her laughing big brother.

     "Why do you keep repeating everything I say?" whined his four-year-old brown-eyed sister.

     "Why do you keep repeating everything I say?" grinned my oldest son glancing my way to see if I had noticed the discomfort he was causing his sister.

     Power.  How this taunting turned his little sister's world upside down.  I overheard the last part of their volley and gave my son that look with my head shaking slowly from left to right.

     "Uh uh.  Enough."  Then when the silliness was over, I pulled them in for a hug.

     "How about coming into the kitchen and helping me out with a small project.  Let's make some 'Happy Candy'.  I'll mix up the powdered milk, peanut butter, wheat germ, and honey, and then you can help me roll it into little balls."

     Broad smiles erupted as they anticipated eating one of those rare sweet treats I allowed my four older ones to enjoy back then.

     As we shaped our 'candy', I remembered a time when I was twenty and worked as a teacher assistant for the first and second-grade teachers.  I tutored children or helped them individually practice lessons that they needed to repeat, or that they hadn't finished.  Usually, it took a great deal of patience.  The repetition of the sounds of the letters or waiting while the words were sounded out, almost being stuttered through insecurity in an effort to make sense out of the letters they were sounding.  These were supposed to form words, sentences, paragraphs, and emote feelings or take a person to another time and world.

     One afternoon, a teacher sent me a very different student to work with.  What a relief!  She could read like the wind.  Her voice rose and fell and spoke with just the right inflections and flowed like a mountain stream over smooth stones.  I enjoyed the reprieve.  We talked about her book and she even invented a new twist that she thought would make the story much better.  Clever.  We laughed out loud at the way the tale would end if she had her way.

     After church, I ran into her mother, Mrs. Snyder, and I described what a pleasure it was to listen to her first grader read and about our time together at school.  She was relieved to hear that the teacher allowed her daughter to go out of the classroom and receive some special attention instead of just loading her up with more work to do since she usually finished her work early.

     Mrs. Snyder told me that she loved her youngest daughter's imagination.  Before supper, she played school every day, lining up all of her dolls.  She learned a lot about what went on each day in class while her daughter impersonated the teachers.  

     I learned just how impressionable children are.  They learn from those around them, then copy the tone of voice, verbal expressions, and body language, even when we don't think they are listening.

     I pondered that conversation and I remembered it for quite some time.  I first heard this advice before I had children of my own, but now, with four now under our roof; I want to live well so that they will copy well.

     I wondered as we rolled our candy balls and placed them in containers, ’Exactly how am I going to teach and lead my children, when some times I still act like such a child?'

       I paid close attention and picked up many ideas by observing other warm-hearted mothers.  Some baked, some sat around and played with their kids, some hugged and ruffled their children's hair, while others spent time reading book after book at bedtime or sang songs as their children snuggled close.  Noted.

     Soon after that, I ran across the book, IN HIS STEPS, in which I read about a church group that was challenged to live each day and to make decisions by asking themselves the question, "What would Jesus do?" (WWJD) 

     This book was not the greatest literary style. It was predictable and simple to read, but the words..."What would Jesus do?" kept repeating themselves over and over in my mind.

     I also realized a deeper truth. The blueprint of this unique, compassionate, and a gentle young man from history had qualities I could follow. The Bible gave me a great deal of food for thought about what God wanted us to be like. The beatitudes, fruit of the spirit, ten commandments, and then parables and proverbs. 

     But I loved to read the red letter version, so I could see just exactly what Jesus spent his time on earth teaching.  He spent his time healing, performing miracles and always had an allegory with a lesson to discuss.  

     However, he never did this for fame, money, or to control.  He simply loved people all around him who were clamoring for his help to find purpose, love, and peace in an imperfect world. He fulfilled his purpose of sharing God’s truths and principles to live by.

     This made me realize that life is not only about me and what I can get out of it, but it is about connecting to brand new moms pushing their carriages along my sidewalk, dads washing their cars, young boys playing football in the street, and the delivery man faithfully knocking on my door.       

     Each person needs to know how significant and amazing they are.  People need to see their wonderful gifts, purpose, and destiny that only they can achieve.  That is what Jesus has done for me, so I want to imitate his loving care for me.

     Placing the lid on the plastic container full of goodies; I ruffled the hair of my three blondies and then my brunette. I spent time addressing the issue of annoyance, but then I explained some of the ways that copying the example of Jesus would be a good thing. 

 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  John 13:14,15 (NIV)