"The ways of righteous people are acceptable before the Lord, and through them even enemies become friends." Proverbs 15:32This proverb is inspiring to me, and the first thing that comes to mind is: lead by example.
We are to lead by example because that's the way to establish a way or a path. Paths are formed by lots of effort. It can be over the span of ages, with the feet, hooves, and paws of many trodding on the same path, or it can be made with the effort of one or more workers making the path. The important thing to remember, though, is that all our examples should be things that will bring others towards God.
Indeed, the proverb says, "through them even enemies become friends," which means that there is a clear path that leads to righteousness. And, in Godly terms, we understand that our notion of righteousness involves transforming our lives to bring us closer to becoming manifestations of the unconditional love that God has for all of us. This means that we need to put aside all our prejudices along our journey of purification. It's not enough just to confess with our mouths and words. We need to live our faith.
Leading by example will involve lots of effort on our part, especially because we have to know where we ourselves are going. We can figure this out with our prayer and our bible reading. We will find out that God is always calling upon us to love our neighbors. And, when we truly adopt this principle of love, we will start to bring others into our community purely by our example of love. Leading by example doesn't just mean to teach others about our ways. Leading by example means that we will lead ourselves forward with this example. It'll be a process, but it will be rewarding for us and for all those around us.
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