Today's Meditation:

Are you a role model?  Yes, you are.  We all are, actually.  The major difference between the so-called "good" role models, though, and the "bad" ones is that the good ones have made a conscious decision to be role models.  They have decided that they are going to live in such a way as to be examples of love and kindness and helpfulness, as well as strong morals and ethics.  They know that others see them all the time, and they've decided just what they want others to see.

And they haven't decided to model these qualities for their own gain.  Instead, they know that if they can show others the positive effects of leading positive lives, then others can decide to emulate them and make their own lives much more positive and fulfilling.

If someone--and especially a young person who is still learning many of the basic aspects of life--sees me constantly complaining and being negative, he or she gets the idea that life is something to complain about, and that person very often will look for things that reinforce this idea.  This person very likely could become someone who complains and focuses on the negative side of life.  Likewise if I constantly criticize others, or if I say that life is unfair, or if I gossip or break the law or hurt others--I'm setting an example.  And all of these things can be very discouraging for the people who are watching me because I'm a part of their lives.

I would much rather know that I've tried to model the positive, that I've been loving and encouraging, and that others think positively when they see my model.  If I am to be that way, I have to make a conscious decision to be so, and I have to stick to it.  Otherwise, who knows what I teach others?

Are you a role model?  For whom?  In what ways?

What is the message that you send as a role model?  Are you an encouraging force in the world, or a discouraging one?

In what ways can you actively try to be more encouraging?
To be less discouraging?

Be such a person, and live such a life, that if every
person were such as you, and every life a life
like yours, this earth would be God's Paradise.

Phillips Brooks

Today's quotation:

Whether or not we realize it each of us has within the ability to
set some kind of example for people.  Knowing this, would you
rather be the one known for being the one who encouraged others,
or the one who inadvertently discouraged those around you?

Josh Hinds

http://www.livinglifefully.com/