Total Example
By Richard and Linda Eyre

Note: Each week this column provides a short essay on one particular aspect or facet of the Lord’s personality and character.  It is intended that the reader focus on this facet while partaking of the sacrament this Sunday.  (Click here to read full introductory column.) Review previous columns by going to the What Manner of Man Archives

Someone once defined leadership with perfect simplicity: “Leadership is being.”

The related clichés are endless: “Practice what you preach,” “Ask no one to do something you would not do,” “What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say,” “You can’t lead someone to a place you are not going.”

There has never been any other teacher who could, as the Savior did, summarize all he had taught in three words: “Come, follow me” (Matthew 4:19; Luke 18:22). All other leaders, at times, either directly or by implication, have had to say, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Perhaps this thought prompted Napoleon, who is quoted as saying: “I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man … a resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and [all other] religions a distance of infinity. Everything in Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me and His will confounds me. Between Him and [anyone] else in the world there is no possible term of comparison.

It is indefinitely easier to set a perfect example in negatively phrased physical teachings (what not to do physically — “don’t kill,” “don’t steal,” and so on) than to exemplify positively phrased mental teachings (what to do, in mind as well as in action — e.g., “love your fellow man”). In the second category, perfection is ruined by one moment’s unkind thought, or my one single failure to notice a need and fill it, or by one single failure to recognize a chance to do good and do it.

Jesus Christ lived a perfect life — a fact that is remarkable because he never committed sin, but much more remarkable because he never omitted good.

The one thing that makes the challenge “Be ye therefore perfect” credible is the simple fact that he who said it, did it.

Next week, as we complete our contemplations of the Savior’s remarkable qualities of leading, we will focus on the revolutionary uniqueness of His cause and his power.

Linda and Richard Eyre, parents of nine children and authors (together and individually) of more than thirty books, are now focusing on reaching families and individuals online. Through their web sites valuesparenting.com, http://www.theeyres.com/, and http://www.familynightlessons.com/, their frequent media appearances on shows such as Oprah, The CBS Early Show, The Today Show, and BYU Television, and their world-wide lecture tours, they continue to work at their mission statement – "FORTIFY FAMILIES, popularize parenting, validate values, and bolster balance."

Linda is a teacher and musician and founder of "Joy Schools." She was named by the National Council of Women as one of America's six outstanding young women. Richard, a former mission president in London and candidate for Utah governor, was the director of the White House Conference on Parents and Children for President Reagan. Both of the Eyres have served on numerous civic, arts, university, and humanitarian boards and head a foundation that focuses on the needs of third world children.

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