Your person, and everything you do, should be so honorable that God makes it a pattern of living for other people. This will happen if you build your life according to God’s word and instructions. When you become an imitation of Jesus, you will be imitated.
America became a great nation because its founding fathers endeavored to use ancient Israel as their pattern. They studied the Bible and saw the kind of government and life God desired for Israel and did their best possible to formulate a constitution and laws in that regard. At the same time, they recognized that ungodly people could neither appreciate a godly system nor keep its laws. Therefore, they promoted the reading and preaching of God’s word that would change people’s hearts for good. Even their first academic institutions were Bible-centered.
The result was an America that was so blessed materially, spread the gospel all over the world, and fought against communism whose premise is ‘there is no God, the State is God’.
When America, for Godly reasons, parted ways with their British masters and things went well, they became a model nation. A few years after the American Revolution, the French too staged a revolution which, however, became a reign of terror. The French wanted to have the blessings of America, but without God. And that is how things went bad. The French Revolution was so bad that it became a pattern for future communist regimes. To quote Bill Federer: "France’s godless Revolution became the blueprint for successive Communist revolutions, where a bloody killing off of the old order was justified as a necessary transition to usher in the promised utopian paradise, which sadly proved to be totalitarian dictatorships." It is sad therefore when sensible people celebrate Bastille Day - the day which sparked off the reign of godlessness and terror - every 14th of July.
A great life - one to be imitated - must have God at the center. Organizations of any kind that are not built according to God’s pattern, with Him at the center, invariably crumble. Rains will descend, floods will come, and winds will blow, but only that which was built according to God’s design will endure (Matthew 7:24-25), and go on to become a pattern to be imitated.
Are you building something? Do so according to what God shows you (Exodus 25:8-9). Do you want a life that will be celebrated in eternity? Follow the blueprint of the Bible. Who knows? You might be designing a pattern to which God will refer other builders.
God bless you.