--William J. Toms

We are all influenced by other people, and our actions and words often have a profound influence on people who are observing us.  People choose role models for a variety of reasons, and we never know who might be looking to us for that purpose. Certainly parents are usually role models for their children, and people who have any degree of celebrity status are often imitated. But sometimes people who have been chosen as models to follow by others may have no idea that they are having such a strong influence on other people.       

Our behavior can have a bigger impact on society than we ever imagine.  Some of us, who consider ourselves just ordinary people, may not be so ordinary in the eyes of some small child who decides to imitate us. Our behavior may serve as a model for the child who tries to copy our personality traits.  If that happens, our behavior may affect that child and everyone he or  she  comes into contact with throughout life. Even the thought of such an awesome possibility should cause us to reexamine the way we are living our lives.

How can we avoid having a negative impact on others who might be trying to imitate us?  The answer to that question is easy.  If we live the kind of lives that we know we should be living, we won't have to worry about having a negative impact on anyone. We all have basic instincts that tell us how we should live.  The problem is that many of us do not want to live that kind  of  life.  We are torn between what our higher selves tell us we should do, and what are lower selves tell us that we want to do. Most of us are urged by our higher selves to live exemplary lives.  But our lower selves nag at us to look out for number one. It is up to us to make the choice as to which urges we will follow.

Basically, we choose the kind of life we live.            Certainly external forces often affect the choices available to us, but still we can choose to serve humanity in addition to ourselves, or we can follow our selfish urges and live as if our sole purpose in life was to seek self gratification. Which choice would we like those around us to make? Do we have any right to make a choice different from that which we think others should make?  

Copyright 2014Allen W. Smith

TB-113—Posted 07/05/2014

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