Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Hebrews 13:7 (NRSV)
Listen to Copycat – She Said
Copycat! Copycat! I thought. Tess copied every move I made. If I jumped rope, she jumped rope. If I played hopscotch, she played hopscotch. And the day she walked in with the very same pair of patent leather Mary Jane shoes, I thought I’d snap.
I stood at the back corner of the class room while Tony Starnes made fun of me and my glasses. I was small and skinny. The blue cat-eye glasses only made things worse. Then Tess came into the room. A pretty little blonde, perfectly dressed, and the same eyeglass frames (except that they looked good on her).
I loved Tess except it bugged me that she mimicked everything I did. She couldn’t be herself so she copied everyone else.
I was a third-grader and couldn’t see the problem, but Mom could. “Why don’t you invite Tess to sleep over Saturday. She can go to church with us Sunday.” Although Tess’s family was financially sound, it was dysfunctional. With an alcoholic mother, her father rarely home, and her two older brothers in trouble, Tess had little good to copy. Mom wanted to give this copycat something worth imitating.
As I grew into an adult, I learned the importance of imitating the faith of my parents. I needed to be a copycat… be like Him. It wasn’t always easy, but over the years, learning to imitate His faith has saved me over and over.
Mom set a habit for Tess, picking her up every Sunday, faithfully taking her to church for years. She placed Tess in a position to copy Christ. As time passed, Tess found church an embarrassment to her social life so she dropped me and church. Her life spiraled out of control and I wished she still copied me.
A few months ago I got a friend notice on Facebook from Tess. Divorced four times, six children… all addicts—her life a disaster and now she faced cancer. I wish I’d just kept being your copycat, she said. “You always had something everyone else wanted. Now I know what it was.”
When we’re parched from the world, the love of Christ quenches our thirst and learning to imitate the faith of Jesus renews us. Copy the deep abiding faith of those who introduced you to Christ. When they pray, you pray. When they leap in faith, leap with them. Jesus wants us to imitate Him.
If you’re copying the world’s ways, stop. Be an imitator of the one who can make your life better. Imitate Christ.
Eddie Jones and Cindy Sproles are friends and cofounders of ChristianDevotions.us. They cowrite the popular He Said, She Said devotions and host Blog Talk Radio’s Christian Devotions Speak UP! along with Scott McCausey.
And now you can catch them each Friday evening at 7 p.m. on He Said, She Said Radio! (Call in number, 646-929-0706 ). They travel with Christian Devotions Ministries teaching the art of writing devotions at writers conferences across the country. Eddie and Cindy are featured in Faith & FINANCES: In God We Trust – A Journey to Financial Dependence. 