Do you have a role model in your life?  Kids often have role models that they follow.  Sadly, they sometimes choose the wrong ones.  Thousands of kids mimic the actions and behaviors of professional athletes, even when the examples they set are negative.  Parents must constantly remind their children that just because a person is great at a particular sport does not mean that they have the kind of character worth imitating.

Adults sometimes choose the wrong role models as well.  Professors, politicians, and even preachers (maybe especially preachers) are followed and imitated blinded.  Doing this can cause adults to lose their way just like it does those who are younger.

If you are going to pattern your life after someone, why not copy the best?  Who is the best role model we could ever have?  He is the one who Paul tells us to imitate.

Ephesians 5:1 (ESV)
¹  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Can you think of a better role model than God?  If you are a Christian, I already know your answer.  What are some things about God that are worth imitating?  Here are a couple of them.  

God loves.  His love is constant and unconditional.  God does not love us because we have done something to deserve it.  He loves us despite our failings and shortcomings.

Romans 5:8 (ESV)
⁸  But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It was for a sinful world that God sacrificed His only begotten Son (John 3:16).  How do you love your neighbor?  Is it with unconditional love?  I’m not talking about how you love your family, friends, or even brethren in Christ.  It is easy to love those who love us back.  To love as God did is to love without any expectation of reciprocation.

Matthew 5:46-48 (ESV)
⁴⁶  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸  You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

God is patient.  This is one of the great characteristics of God from which we benefit.  We should all be thankful that we serve a God who is longsuffering.  He demonstrated this long-suffering when He waited to destroy the world while Noah was building the ark.  Referring to those who are now waiting for judgment in Hades, Peter wrote, “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing…(1 Peter 3:20).

Noah not only built the ark, but he also preached to the ungodly while he did so, trying to persuade people to repent (2 Peter 2:5).  How long did God hold back His wrath, giving man the opportunity to repent?  According to Genesis 6:3, 120 years.  That is patience.

How patient are you with others?  To develop patience is to possess a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and to become more like God.

Let’s all do what Paul exhorted us to do and imitate God.  I cannot think of a better role model than Him.  Can you?

As you wind down for the night, think about these things