Templates

In church last week a lady spoke about using Christ as a template for your life. I enjoy analogies and I tend to carry them to their extreme just to see how far they will hold up.
This template analogy reminded me of a previous life I had as a cabinet builder. Frequently I would make a template for something if I had to make several things that all had to be very similar. By temporarily screwing the template to another piece of wood I could cut another piece that was as close to exact as possible. But what would happen if I were to take this new piece and use it as the template to make a third piece? And what would happen if that piece were to be used to make a forth? And so on? Just like making a copy of a copy any imperfections in the new piece would be transferred to subsequent pieces. In order to get the truest copy possible we have to make sure we are using the original template. Now back to the issue. If we are to truly become like Christ we must be sure that we are using Him as our template. All too often I see people using a copy of a copy as their template. It’s okay for us to look up to somebody else as an example of how to pattern our life after Christ. However, ultimately it is Christ who should be our template and not this third piece.
I see this happening in our Ward with several of the young men. They idolize one of their leaders and in turn they try to be just like him. Their testimonies are full of statements like “Bro. X is so awesome”, “I’ve learned so much from Bro. X”, Bro. X says that…” etc. This praise for someone who is helping them to grow is admirable. I’m just a little concerned that they may be missing the mark just a little and, just like using the second piece from the template, they are inadvertently taking some of Bro. X’s less Christ-like attributes as well.