Me: "Hey Wes, wanna play tag?"
Wes: 'Hey Wes, wanna play tag?'
"Heyyy... you're copying me!"
'Heyyy... you're copying me!'
"Stop it!"
'Stop it!'
"You stop or I'm telling mom."
"You stop or I'm telling mom.'
"Moooooom!"
As much as I loved my brother, sometimes he could be a pain in the you-know-where. We have a great relationship, though. We're only eighteen months apart, so we're buddies. We have fun. He's not that annoying 'little brother' and I'm not that mean 'older sister' anymore (Hey, it wasn't my fault that whenever he was around me he magically ended up hurt, come on. The kid was jinxed, alright?).
You know, we continue to play little games like copycat with each other, even now, as seventeen and eighteen year olds. Why not? It's all in good fun, and we know better than to go storming off to mom to tattle.
Something has been on my heart recently, and, in its simplest form, it's copycat. We should strive to be Christlike. Sure, we can't do everything He did, and unlike Him nobody will ever be perfect. But we can try our hardest to be like Christ.
Honestly, I don't think I've ever truly cared, much less even thought about being more Christlike.
There. I said it.
But as I'm changing and God is working in me, I realize now how important it is to do so. Going along with the last chapter and devotionals... I received yet another devotional, this time from crosswalk.com, that really touched my heart. I'd like to share it. It's short and sweet. It touches on imitating God, but focuses on love:
'Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. If we are to sincerely flatter God by being like Him, imitation may be the most costly form of flattery as well. You see, love for God is never something that occurs just in our minds or our hearts. Love is something we do for another - it is action. John said in 1 John 4 that we must love in both our deeds and our words. Love means to give ourselves up - what we want, our rights, our desires - to honor God and serve others. This is a kind of love that can change the world, or a marriage, or a family.
Abba, Father, I will never fully understand how you could love me so much that you would allow your son to die for me as my sacrifice. Please help me love others sacrificially. I know the power to do this is not within me, so please pour out your love into my heart so that I may share that love with others. Through Jesus, my brother and my sacrifice, I pray. Amen.'
'Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.'
[Ephesians 5:1-2]
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