"Bossy Anna!"

"Vince, don't talk with food in your mouth!"  Anna said, her voice a little muffled from the spaghetti she had in her own mouth.  "It's just not polite!"

"Anna, stop bossing me!"  Vince shouted back -- still with plenty of pasta filling his own cheeks.

And from the high chair across the table came Victoria's high-pitched, clear voice "Anna, stop bossing me!"

Victoria has picked up a lot of phrases things like, "Good idea," "Just a second,"  and the words to "Jesus Loves Me."  Now, she knows the phrase "Bossy Anna!"

It isn't that we have been intentionally teaching her most of these things.  She just picks them up.  Clearly we say them more than we realize.

Back in 1993, the famous philosopher, Charles Barkley notoriously said "I'm not a role model.  Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids."  Which meant, in other words, "I don't want to be a role model," nothing more or less.

Regardless of his wishes, there were lots of young men who were following his moves, on and off the basketball court, and trying to emulate them.  The same is true for the rest of us as well.

There are many who follow in our footsteps -- friends, brothers and sisters, or our children.  They pick up more than phrases we say, they learn behaviors, actions, and attitudes.

I do pray that my children and others around me might learn good things from my life and godly behaviors.  I didn't sign up to be a role model, but I am one, like it or not.

Let the things others learn be Christ-honoring things.

Not just "Bossy Anna!"