Don't follow in my footsteps. . .I run into walls

I have a confession to make.  As much as my self-confidence has grown in the last few years, it still is very unsettling to me when anyone makes a remark about me being a good example for anyone else.  

I always wanna say, "Are you kidding?  Have you met me?!"  I think I'm a decent person and all that, but I don't think that anyone else should be using me as an example or role model--there are much better ones out there! I don't know a whole lot.  I'm only 24 years old, for one thing, but I also haven't ever been as well-studied as I ought to be.  I can be horribly lazy and unmotivated and viciously sarcastic when the mood strikes.  I don't think that that's the kind of person anyone else should be modeling (just ask my children--one of whom is often yelling at the other, "Stop and listen to me! Do you want to sit in the corner?!")  

There are things I am good at, I suppose, but you sure have to gloss over a lot of ugly parts to focus only on those things.  I guess that says a lot about my friends and the people in my life.  The opinion of me that many of them has actually gives them more credit than it does me.  I'm so very blessed to have many people in my life who are willing and able to look past my many faults and love me for the good things.  And on my better days, they make me strive to do better, because I have such love and respect for them that I want to live up to the good thoughts they've chosen to think about me.

I don't know that I can take a lot of credit for the good stuff, though.  My trials in life have not been all that monumental.  My hurdles haven't been very high most of the time.  And the ones that have been more difficult have taught me so much so quickly that I can't hardly complain.  Especially since whenever there have been difficulties, I have had people in my life--even if just one or two individuals, someone--who supported me and filled the need of whatever I lacked, even if I didn't always realize it at the time.  

I'm afraid that I can take the credit myself--and deserve to--for most of my mistakes, sins and faults.  But a good deal of the credit for my strengths and accomplishments must be given to the people who have loved, nurtured and taught me (even when I didn't think it was their obligation to do so) and to a loving Father who has always watched over me closely and provided for me abundantly.  

That's the example we ought to be looking toward.  All of us have individuals in our lives that we look to for examples, whether of certain attributes or of the kind of people we would like to be generally, but I'm not really comfortable being that person for someone else, no matter how young.  There are so many people who are closer to the Exampler than I am, it seems quite foolhardy to think I could be among them.  Nevertheless, I am grateful for the good people in my life that I look to for an example and friendship.  There are so many amazing people in my world that I am privileged to interact with, and do hope to model some of the many strengths and attributes that they have, because I am certainly not of their caliber.  Yet.