ON THE VANGUARD

SET THE STANDARD
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.”
I Timothy 4:12

A few days back I wrote to you about raising the standard, and about how this is our time to raise the flag of our beliefs and the measurement of our actions. I also discussed how it is time we revere the Lord as never before, so that when the enemy comes in, like a flood the Lord will raise His standard against the enemy. Today I want to continue on this same idea, but with a more detailed and personal view of our measurements. I am going to tell on myself a little during this post, I warn you now, but it will relate in ways to which God is convicting me in my standard setting.
As I was reading with my kids last night from our Bible devotional, I landed on the story of Jeremiah’s calling. If we look back to Jeremiah 1:5-8, we see that God gently spoke to Jeremiah that He had formed him and called him. But Jeremiah’s first response was, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” God corrected Jeremiah in responding back that he should not say he was just a boy, but rather should say all that he was commanded to by God. Reading this account with my children last night reminded me once again of I Timothy 4:12, and the words written to Timothy about his youth.
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity.” I can’t tell you how old Timothy might have been, or even if this has to do with his age in years as opposed to his age as a believer, but what I can tell you is Timothy was encouraged to set an example. Better put, Timothy was being told to set the standard. In speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity, Timothy was supposed to be the measurement. It wasn’t that Timothy had obtained perfection, but he was setting his mark in accordance with the standards of God. In turn, he was now being asked, challenged rather, to be that standard for those who watched him.
Now here comes the look into my life that I warned you about. I have not set this standard in my own life for others to see, at least not in every area. Sure I perhaps set a standard in the writings of these entries and in my faith, but what about in my speech? Believe it or not, I was frustrated with my son this morning and called him a name. That wasn’t very standard setting was it? And it isn’t the first time. In some ways I am grateful he called me out after I said it and confronted me about it because it took that for me to see that I am not setting the right standard here. This is not the measurement I want in my home. Nor do I want my children to see a standard of just getting by when God offers abundance. Or how about in the areas of life where God offers joy but the best standard I can muster up are the feelings of constant anger or frustration. This doesn’t sound like the right standard either.
If you have read my writings for any period of time you know I am not perfect. But that doesn’t give me the right to stop trying to follow after God. God desires that I live according to His standard, even when it is hard and I don’t feel like it. However, God also asks me, despite my youth (or lack of it) to set a standard for others. The words for Timothy are also for you and me. It is time we stop looking at what we are failing at and move on. Let us pick up the standard we dropped and move forward with it again, setting it once more. There are people watching us…it’s time we point them to God through the standard we are living.