When you’re a role model, do you polish or smash your saintly image?<\/p>\n
At the close of one of our family life conferences, my wife and I were chatting with some attenders. As the large hall emptied, a woman approached my wife, Karen, and, glancing in my direction, said, “It must be wonderful to have a husband like Ron. He’s obviously so thoughtful, courteous, and kind. I wish my husband were like that, and I wish he had been here!”<\/p>\n
She was sincere. Karen smiled. I thanked the woman as graciously as I could, sputtered something about not always being that way, and left her with Karen while I packed the car.<\/p>\n
The incident is now a decade old. The name and face of that woman have long since vanished from memory, but not the impression she made. Her compliment provided a profound commentary on how listeners can perceive a pastor or speaker. To her I epitomized the ideal husband and father.<\/p>\n
How could she have thought anything otherwise? My real-life illustrations and anecdotes were positive ones with happy endings. I communicated that I was the head of a smooth-running, well-disciplined household. Everything was under control, my children obedient, my judgment and decision-making flawless. I was loving, affectionate, mature in all the Christian graces. I was, in her words, “together.”<\/p>\n
REALITY CHECK<\/p>\n
Confusing emotions swirled in me. I liked her compliment, but<\/p>\n
..\u2026(missing) >> ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you’re a role model, do you polish or smash your saintly image? At the close of one of our family life conferences, my wife and I were chatting with some attenders. As the large hall emptied, a woman approached my wife, Karen, and, glancing in my direction, said, “It must be wonderful to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[338,5017,1673,5018,3359,3095,2218],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}