"You can teach what you know, but you will reproduce who you are."

This is a quote that a mentor of mine used to say often.  She had a lot of sayings like, "You can tell the students all about character and integrity and that God is real, but if the way you are living your life contradicts what you are saying, then you might as well stop talking because they aren't listening anymore."  Students can recognize a hypocrite a mile away.  Quotes like this make me nervous though, because I know that someday Steve and I will have kids or maybe I'll get involved in ministry again.  These little lives are going to be watching the way I live.  Am I living up to the high standard that I have set for myself?  Is my standard to high?  Is it high enough?  I try to keep in touch with as many of my former students as I can and it breaks my heart when I see one of them fall away from God.  I can't help but feel like I failed them as their leader.  What more could I have said?  What more could I have done?  Was I not modeling Christian behavior like I should have been?  Did I miss something in their lives?  I know that the students grow up and have other influences that may have lead them astray, but what could have I said to help them avoid those traps?  How can I love them better now that they messed up?  How can I show them that God still loves them despite anything they may have done?

If you have integrity, nothing else matters.  If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.  ~Alan Simpson

 The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right. ~William Safire