Parents and other influential people are "role models". Those models are normally thought to be of positive influences, but there are also "negative role models".
I'm going to be candid for a moment. I'm going to speak of one of my own children. It's easy to decipher, but let's call my child "Prone" because he's likely do to what is worst for him!
Prone was a great son even as a child. His intelligence has always been greater than most children. I remember playing the card game Concentration with him when he was as young as four. Since I'm an engineer it is to be assumed that I have sufficient amounts of gray matter to learn what engineers must learn. However, my four-year old son, Prone, could slaughter me at Concentration! I hated to lose, but bragged on his skill, memory and intelligence.
On another occasion my four-year old son was under the car with me (as he always was) as I in futility failed to get the new exhaust system in place. My son said "ad if you take off that wheel it'll go right on." I laughed and did as he said. The exhaust went right on! I was proud of his maturity! Prone had the potential to be anything he wanted to be!
However! I am not calling him "Prone" for nothing!
Prone had an uncle. Let's call him "Trouble". Trouble worried me. Not only were his genes and blood line part of Prone's, but he was a role model as well. Trouble was course, strong, belligerent, independent, rebellious, apathetic to rules, and a braggart prone to lying for self-aggrandizement. On the other hand, as parents, his mother and I were much different. To her credit she had risen from her environment and bettered herself. My family was for the most part fully functional and traditional. I was from a Christian home. She was not!
I lived in extreme fear that Prone would accept Trouble as a role model. I saw admiration in my son's eyes whenever Trouble did macho things. On one particular occasion Trouble shaved his course beard with a straight razor without soap. Prone looked on, at about five years old, in deep admiration. My fear had become reality. Prone was prone to influence from trouble. It was the child monkey "aping" the adult monkey, what's called "Monkey See... Monkey Do"!
Trouble was trouble and Prone was prone to trouble. My intelligent, bright, and overly mature child became a carbon copy of Trouble. In effect the big ape, Trouble, was the adult monkey who was the role model for Prone, the child monkey. What Monkey saw, the monkey did. He did things the adult monkey did because that's what infant monkey's do!
With "Monkey See... Monkey Do" the reason for doing relies on one thing. The monkey is mimicking what was modeled. In this case Trouble was modeling troublesome acts and Prone was prone to mimic what Trouble was modeling!
"Monkey See... Monkey Do" raises the question: "Why do children want to mimic those who model bad behaviors?" Why is that? It's because we're born with sinful natures!
Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"First off, we don't mimic Adam because he is our role model. He isn't the monkey we copy. We are like Adam because of our bloodline. We tend to sin because sinfulness is our nature! We are all born prone to sin! Likewise, because Adam sinned, he died. If we have unforgiven sin in our lives we too shall die, not only once, but twice, when our souls die too!
If you are human you too have sinned! Except for Jesus, who was God, no man has immunity from this inherited virus.
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God...""All" is everyone and since everyone has sinned we all fail to DESERVE God's reward. This was the case before Jesus and still is:
Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:"The New Testament validates what was always true. "None are righteous!" "No, not one!" That includes both you and me! When one sees "As it is written" it is prudent to ask "Where is this written?" It's written in the Old Testament many places and here are two:
Psalm 14:3 "They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.That everyone is born into sin is an immutable declaration of God! It's why we all deserve death and because he offers a way to redeem ourselves, that's his mercy. God doesn't "have to" do anything, but he desires to save us all at his own volition! That's grace!
Psalm 53:1 "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
Moving on, because of original sin we are all "prone" to sin. Some sin is worse than others, some repent and others don't. What makes each one of us what we are? My son is not the only "Prone". Most people are copied after this pattern. Our souls are made in the image of God, our bodies in the image of Jesus, but our minds are more like Satan's. Because of what we inherited, we are all prone to sin! That which tempts us to sin is why some sin more grievously than others!
The monkey copying the monkey is what Prone did!. Prone copied Uncle Trouble and as a result his life as been much like, but not entirely, as Uncle Trouble's life was! Uncle Trouble's life was full of trouble. He died recently and I don't know if he's forgiven. However, it's sad. He paid the consequences of sin with much pain. Now Prone is doing the same!
With sin Prone not only copied Trouble, he became the image of trouble. Because of who he mimicked Prone has been in trouble quite often. His independence and lack of meekness has cost him his job several times and his disregard for the law has cost much in time and money. His labor, and he is industrious, has meant spending what he earned on legal troubles. He has a good heart, but what we think is "good" in ourselves is as filthy rags to God! (Isaiah 64:6). The only salvation for Prone is the same as for the rest of us. He must repent of his sins and become a new person!
Unfortunately Satan stands at the door where Jesus knocks. There is a muffler which dampens the knock. Because of marijuana and it's mellowing effect, one must be sober to hear the knock. Yes, they may here Jesus lightly tap, but he's really rapping hard at the door.
1 Peter 5:8 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"As Jesus raps on your heart's door, the devil is there endeavoring to devour when Jesus calls. Trouble used drugs. As did Trouble, Prone to trouble did also. The monkey did what the monkey saw! I'm not sure that Trouble ever repented, and Prone to trouble may never either. That worries me! Why? I love Prone and want him to have eternal life. In fact I loved Trouble as well and hope that he will too!
When Prone was a toddler I worried about the influence of Trouble. When I looked lovingly at my young son, I was afraid! There are many things in my life which I did not want the little monkey to copy, but the one thing I wished for him, is that he would share the hope which I have!
Prone didn't get all his trouble from Trouble. There were many of us who contributed to his proneness. However, each time he was prone to do wrong, he made a free choice. Prone chose pleasure over happiness so often because pleasure offers immediate gratification. Unfortunately, for Prone, that gratification was his romance with Mary Jane. My child is now a grown man, but emotionally Mary Jane has made him dependent on her. When his life goes wrong, he's prone to turn to his new "monkey", Mary Jane. She's always been a monkey on his back and what this monkey does to people is make them trouble.
That grown man, and I know that he would deny it, is still my emotional child. Mary Jane kept him from maturing in his emotional life, When Prone speaks trouble, I think "It's not Prone speaking; it's Mary Jane!" With that thought I have always hoped that my son is still under that "monkey" somewhere and as the prodigal son, someday he will return to me! I have hope for him as does the Lord! This is my hope:
Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."He may have departed for a time, but Prone; I have hope: will come back to what he was taught to be! His mother and I brought him up in church and he knows what is right. Someday I have hope that the monkey will be gone and he shall return to me:
Luke 15: 20 "And he (the older son) arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."That will be a great day when that monkey which yet lives is put away in his cage for good!
I shed tears as I write this because I still have hope!
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