Who's Your Role Model?

When you associate with all the wrong people you'll make the same bad decisions they do.  I remember when my Dad used to quote this at me in the admirably succinct words of the Bible, "Bad company corrupts good morals."  I believed it, but I wasn't sure why.  I thought hey, if I have a couple sort-of-bad friends it's not going to derail my train.  I'll be able to change them. As it turns out it wasn't the case.  The wrong people succeed in corrupting you because you choose to associate with them-they become your role models.

Most of the bad decisions in my life were made because of the company I was keeping.  I was lucky in that I divested myself of them before any serious harm was done.  But I began to understand my father a bit more.  Role models are one of the most important figures to have in your life.  Role models instill in you all of which they stand for.  Mother Theresa has always been a role model of mine.  One of her famous quotes was that she kept praying for God to heal the hurts of the world and to take care of the children until one day she realized he was telling her to be his instrument.  She took the initiative to do all the good she wanted to see in the world.

On the other hand we can look at the 'role models' of contemporary America.  I have nothing against Kim Kardashian but taken at face value she represents; excess, fame by sex tape, the pursuit of money, vanity, and throw-away marriages.  And yet there are hundreds of thousands of young girls that seek to be just like her.

As much as I am in awe of Mother Theresa's life and work, she isn't my only role model.  It's my grandmother who I cherish the most.  While its great to have a celebrity role model...the ones that are closest to us end up shaping us the most.  My grandmother was no where near perfect, but she loved so fiercely and she set for me the prime example of what a marriage and a life could be.

Find something you admire in someone and emulate that part of them.  No one will be perfect and someday you'll be let down...but just remember we are all human.