Am I A Role Model?

AM I A ROLE MODEL? Today I was given the compliment or “accused” of being a role model, depending on which stance you take.  A title, position or power I never asked for. The Webster’s defines a role model as a person imitated by others & is a title given to you by others. A role model doesn't typically recruit followers or ask people to admire or try to imitate them.  However me & as I'm sure others who have bore this title are thankful for their kind words & their perception of us but the problem that still remains is this... The person that identifies you in this role gets to determine what qualities you have to or should possess. An example would be a role model should not cuss. Who gives that person the right to put that pressure or expectation on an imperfect being, which by default is destined to let his or her “followers” down.  My thoughts would be that a role my model is a person who shows grace to the fallen because he or she first fell.  A role model is a person who gets to know the most intimate details of people & allows them to know the truth, & dark places of their soul & life in honesty.  A role model is a person not judged on his reputation because a reputation is the public’s "estimation" of his character.  His character however is not an estimation at all, it is developed & cultivated by people who truly know the heart of that supposed role model. In society today we give out that title so frequently.  We give it to people who make money, win awards, catch the public eye or do something generous for their neighbor. We don't know nor have ever really met the heart of that person.  So to some yes I can be called a role model.  Call me one for my honesty, call me one for my passion, call me one for my conviction & desire to give from my heart to help others in need, but do not call me one because I am a Christian or a therapist, because we all have our own definitions & perceptions for what that means. Call me one because you know me & you realize that am I still an amazing work in progress who will never give up until I die. Do not call me one because you think your children look up to me for reasons “you” feel are important. Your children should look up to me for who I am, not what “you” want me to be.  A role model in many ways is idolatry worship because the word says in Ephesians 5:1 that we should all be imitators of God an attempt to copy who & what Jesus did & be who he created us to be in order to fill our identity in Christ. Anyone put in a role model position will eventually fail & let their imitators down or the parents of their imitators.  Then the followers or imitators make statements of shame, contempt & judgment towards the role model in an attempt to fit them back into their box or persona which the role model never asked to be placed into in the first place. So to sum up my view on a role model, let's just say I am one to those who truly know & understand me & for those who don't I refuse to accept that title.   PEACE!!!