Television stars and sports stars are people who daily influence our lives.  We look up to them and sometimes even idolize them.  They soon become our role models.  We do what they do.  We sing their songs, dress like they do, and act like them.  Is this right?  What is a proper role model?  Who should be our role models and to whom should we be role models?  I aim to address these questions in this article.

Role models are people after whom we pattern our lives.  Worldly role models set the fashions of the day, the hairdos, the songs, and act in worldly movies.  However, these aren’t the types of role models to whom we as Christians must look.

We are to model our lives after people who have great spiritual strength.  This means that we should look to people like parents, elders and ministers as our role models.  These are people whom we recognize for their great knowledge and spirituality.  Our lives should reflect their lives.  Since they are our role models, we must look to them for advice.  Whether we have a spiritual question or a very practical question, they will have an answer.  When we are doing something, we must ask whether or not they would do these things.

We cannot count on these people to lead us by the hand every step of our lives.  We must be able to make many decisions by ourselves, but we can use their lives as a guideline for our lives.

We should also consider our peers to be our role models.  While they might not have the experience that an older person has, they can still set a pattern for us to follow.  This is an area where we as young people are sometimes found to be lacking.  We, as young people, tend to be intimidated by our peers.  This is why we hear so much about peer pressure.  While we should be able to freely talk to them and listen to their advice, we don’t always do this.  We do things because our peers, after whom we model our lives, do them, and we think that this makes it right for us to do them.

However, this is a good opportunity for us to be a role model.  By being different, we can try to convince our peers to also do the right things.

Hebrews 11 is a Bible passage that is filled with role models.  This passage gives an historical account of people from Bible times who have extreme faith in God.  If we could only show such faith in our own lives!  These people endured through hardships, the likes of which we may never see, and were constantly strengthened by these hardships.  We must learn from them to look at these trials from God as a positive means of strengthening our own lives.

The ultimate role model is Christ.  He lived the perfect life and we must surely pattern our lives after Him.  We cannot live perfectly, but if we try, we can live better lives.  In I Peter 2:21-25, we read “For even hereunto were ye called:  because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:  Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:  Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not:  but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness:  by whose stripes ye were healed.  For ye were as sheep gone astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”

Here we see that Christ, as our role model, lived His perfect life as an example for us.  Therefore, it is imperative that if we call Christ our role model, we question our actions at all times.  We must ask “Would Christ have done this?”  If the answer is “No”, we must bring about some quick changes in our lives.

We must also answer the question “To whom am I to be a role model?”

As I said before, we must be role models to our peers.  WE must influence their lives like they influence ours.  It is our duty to help them by our words and actions if they are wayward in their lives.  We must also be role models to our younger brothers, sisters and their friends.  They are constantly watching our actions and thus we must always set a good example.  There are also times when we can be a role model to those who are older and wiser than we are.  If we see them doing wrong we must show them the right way.

If we are to be role models for others, we must watch our words and actions so that they are pleasing to God at all times.  Then, others will see by our lives what things are right to do and what things are wrong.

Finally, I would ask that we constantly pray to God asking Him to use our lives to influence others.  We must pray that we will lead a good life patterned after the perfect life of our Savior Jesus Christ, “who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”