Tag Archives: model behavior

Stop Pouting and Start Leading

When someone is hurt, ill or sad, its easy to become distracted, absorbed by the painful reality of life.  One of the common reactions is to pout, a visible form of depression by expressing disappointment through your body language.  This pitiful state blinds individuals from those who need you the most, often resulting in isolation and withdraw.  Once you reach this point, its hard to snap out of this mindset.

Since my tubing accident, I guess you can say I lost or wasted the entire month of February.  I feel like I have been bewitched by the sorrow of my circumstances, similar to the church of Galatia who lost sight of faith, Galatians 3:1-5.  In my mental absence, my wife has tried to hold our family together as best as she could.  However, now its time for me to stop pouting and start leading.

“Compromise is the language of the devil,” according to one of Eric Liddell’s mentors in Chariot’s of Fire.  As a parent, if you allow your children to wear you down, compromise will become a way of life.  As my eyes have awoken from my spiritual slumber, its essential for me to lead my kids toward the less traveled road, Matthew 7:13-14.  However, words are meaningless unless I display the way.  Therefore, I need to experience a Chrysalis like the butterfly, 2 Corinthians 5:17, who enters as an inch worm and exits transformed on wings like eagles, Isaiah 40:31.  If people stop pouting and start leading, this generation can be saved one life at a time.

by Jay Mankus

Go a Little Further

When I was growing up, it wasn’t cool to be smart or raise your hand to answer questions in class.  Students who strove to go a little further became labeled brown nosers and teacher’s pets.  As a high school teacher for 10 years, this mentality still exists, present in 90% of the classes I taught.  Unfortunately, this negative peer pressure steers some individuals away from over-achieving, leaving it behind for fame, popularity and social status.  The end result of this cultural phenomena is a society which does just enough to get by.

In the book of Genesis, there is a boy who fits the brown noser, teacher’s pet stereotype.  However, this boy refused to lower his personal standards.  Instead, Joseph went above and beyond the expectations of others.  Although, his brothers wanted to kill him, despite being sold into slavery and falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Joseph went a little further, Genesis 39:21-23.  Inspired by God, Joseph’s work ethic led him to run an estate, prison and eventually the nation of Egypt, Genesis 41:29-30.

During his sermon on the mount, Jesus took this concept one step further in Matthew 5:41-42.  When you go the extra mile, you exceed and surpass what a typically person would do.  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37, Jesus demonstrates what going a little further resembles: a model of care, compassion and consideration.  Furthermore, Matthew 25:35-36 breaks down what an individual can specifically do.  Finally, the apostle Paul encloses a prayer within Colossians 3:17, 3:23 to remind Christians of their motivation for going a little further.  Pay it forward today!

by Jay Mankus