By Ann Weaver.
Ever since I was about about six years old, I’ve had a role model. Though the specific role model has changed over the years as various circumstances have changed, there's always been a girl that I look up to.
I’m now out of high school. As I look around me, I see younger girls, who are seven years old, nine years old, and in their early teens. And I realize that I’m the same age as my role models used to be!
Has this happened to you? Recalling a former role model and realizing that you’re the same age – or older – than the girls you used to look up to? It’s a strange feeling. It seems almost wrong, somehow, that I’m that old.
My mother has always reminded me to be a good example for younger girls. Not only do I have a sister four years younger than me, but I’m also around people younger than me fairly often. For many years, I brushed off my mother’s comments. It honestly didn’t seem possible that I could be an older girl for the younger girls to look up to. I didn’t feel old.
I still don’t feel “old.” In fact, I’m not too sure I’ll ever feel old enough to be someone’s role model. Perhaps you feel the same way. But no matter how strange it is to think about, we are growing older. Some of us might even be considered young women. And no matter how old we are, there is always a girl younger than us who just might be looking up to us as an example.
Though it may seem strange to be that old, we have to realize that we need to set a good example. In the past, I’ve wondered how to do that. Then I looked at my own role models, and I realized they had several things in common.
The first thing was that they talked to me. Made time for me. Were interested in what I was interested in. (Or at least sounded like that… I doubt they were actually interested in some of the stuff I talked about. XD) When you’re young it means the world for a “big girl” to come up to you and ask questions about your life. And not just the typical “how are you?” or “what have you been doing lately?". It's when they actually expand on those questions and talk about those things. It makes children feel valued and important.
The next thing, hand-in-hand with the first, was that they (for the most part) didn’t talk down to me. A child or teen can always tell when you talk down to them, and they hate it. I know many teen girls who talk to people younger than them like they’re three, just because they don’t happen to know something they know. I despised people who did that to me, and still greatly dislike it. Talking down to a younger person is worse than never talking to them in the first place.
A final thing is that they all, as far as I can remember, were well-kept. Both physically and in character. No, they weren’t some kind of fashion model or striking beauty. Nor did they appear to take excessive time primping or dressing themselves. But they were usually tidy and looked nice. And they were not rowdy or overbearing or rough. Some were more lively than others, some wore plainer clothes than others, but none of them were unkind or chaotic in any way.
As an older girl, I know I can learn from these things. You probably can too. It’s easy to brush off a younger girl or talk down to her. Sometimes our outward appearance is less than it should be. Once in a while we might be a bit rowdy, or maybe even snappish towards family or friends. No one is perfect, but shouldn’t we strive to be better, especially when younger eyes are watching us?
As we endeavor to be good role models to these girls, let’s remember that “(we) are the light of the world…” (Matthew 5:16), and to follow the ultimate example of Jesus Christ.
In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. (Titus 2:7-8)
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