Leading By Example

Lately I have felt myself being pulled away from my simplistic values by others while being in the city. Sometimes it feels hard to balance all of my different values, as they can enter into periods of contradiction fairly easily at times. It's ironic since I have so much time up there to really engage in simplicity. However the concept of leading by example has been filtering through my mind the last few days and it all started on Friday....

Learning from elders....my granny! On my way back down to the coast I stopped to spend a day/night with her and to visit with my favorite friends that live there also. Granny sends weekly notes to people and so usually has an on-slaught of stamps available. Last week she was out of traditional stamps and was so excited to give me a lesson on frugality. Over the years , she has received numerous letters from organizations asking for donations (she's a very charitable lady but can only give so much), and some of the return envelopes had stamps already applied to them. Stop here though and realize that these are 1, 3, 5, 10 cent stamps adding up to whatever postage was at the time. As she had two bills to go out, she demonstrated the proper stamp extraction, reapplying, and gluing process and then we spent the next half hour removing all the rest of the stamps so she would have them ready to use! That was lesson one in frugality.

Lesson two in frugality pertained to double checking statements, something I rarely do except to verify that I was billed online. She demonstrated how she saves receipts, checks to make sure she has a receipt for all the entries on her statement, and then double checks the amount to make sure it is correct. Over the years, she says she has found several mistakes. Lesson two in frugality. And I'm sure she will continue to teach me over the years-yet I am always so impressed in how she leads by example.

This concept came up in church yesterday as well. That as Christians we should be leading by example in terms of our faith in general, and in terms of our approach to the Christmas season. And it was something I thought of as I walked to and from church yesterday also-a measly mile one way and something that has become so standard due to walking everywhere in the city. I could have driven and I'm sure as I'm home I will drive more than naught, but by walking I feel that I am leading by example. As I walked by all the cars idling in the driveways, I realized I probably wasn't making that much of an environmental difference but at least I am walking my talk and hoping to encourage others to experience the benefits of walking as well. I hope we all lead by example and demonstrate to others our values through our actions-although I will be the first to admit that there are times when we all falter or get caught up in the midst of the storm.

P.S. I'm glad to be home, many more postings to follow! :-)