practicing what we preach

St Lactantius talks to us today about setting a good example in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says that we can't tell other people to follow the teachings of Jesus and the church if we don't follow them ourselves.

This applies to every area of life, when you think about it. In a business, you need to lead by example, as is exemplified in the picture above. Not whipping your employees to work harder, but out front showing them how it's done.

As a parent, it might be easy to say, "Do as I say, not as I do," but a good parent knows that setting the right example for their children is the best way to teach them how to be good people.

So it makes sense that, as Christians, we want to do the same thing. Now, the important thing to notice here is that this does NOT mean we must be perfect all of the time. We're not telling our students to be perfect. We're telling them to strive for perfection, and when we fail (which we WILL do), to repent and confess and start working on being perfect again. The church doesn't teach that followers of Jesus never sin. That's why the idea of not going to church because it's "full of hypocrites" is mistaken. The church teaches that we're all sinners. But in the church, we have a place to go to learn to do better. To be changed by the power of God into the people He made us to be.

How can we set that example today?

God, thank You for teaching us by example. Please teach us to do the same.