Modeling behavior is so important
One day, when I was fifteen, I was in the passenger seat as a ride-along with my dad while he was running errands. We would do that from time to time, and I always enjoyed my time in the car with my dad when it was just the two of us. In other words, my brother wasn’t there. haha.
So, we are driving around town running errands and dad is constantly giving me driving instructions. He is explaining to me why he did this or that and I was paying attention, half way at least.
We got in line at the bank drive-thru.
He was feeling it!
As we queued up in line at the bank, I think dad thought that now is the perfect time to give me much more advice and more concentrated teaching while we were stopped. He began S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G out how to go about navigating a bank drive-thru.
He worked through the intricacies of spacing between the curb and the car, the proper distance between you and the car in front of you and the way you smoothly pull your car up close to the window BUT not too close for the extended window to hit your car. He was on FIRE! Spitting out golden and sage drive-thru wisdom like no one else had before. It was a thing of beauty. My own personal maturity in the area of drive-thru knowledge increased exponentially that day.
OOPS!
It was at that point that the car in front of us moved up and dads little 4-door sedan hopped up onto the curb which is the equivalent of that motorcycle guy at the circus who rides upside down in that human-sized hamsters wheel.
What comes up, must come down
Immediately noticing what atrocity he had committed, he over-corrected. The “little engine that could” had climbed that mean-old curb reversed course and came crashing down not without causing a little fender scrape in the chaos of the moment.
Upon landing back on level ground, the NY Yankees cap that my dad always wore when running errands had bounced up and landed back on his head but off center just enough to cover his eyes.
The glove box flew open and the 7 ink pens that were placed in and around the front seat all went rushing to the floorboard.
It was a wonderful moment.
Do as I say….
This is when he said it.
“Son, obviously, it is more important that you do as I say, and not as I do.”
This is a Life Truism
Whether it is in the daily routine of parenting, coaching, or leading an organization or even leading a small group Bible study, WHAT you do has more impact – BY A MILE – than WHAT you say.
What areas of life are you saying one thing and doing something ese?
