HEROES - Where are they today?  Who are the people we can seek to copy?  Whose lives encourage us to aspire to greater and better ways of living?   What are the qualities we want to build into our lives?

In my rather limited experience, I find few older people who represent for me what I would hope to be like when I get older. That is no reflection on the people I know. Rather it is a statement of the deficit I sense in my life. I'm not sure I even want to have heroes to follow.

Perhaps I am a child of my cultural upbringing. I am a product of my age where the only heroes are "anti-heroes."  These modern day models epitomize a reaction against hypocritical, synthetic frauds. These are the ones who influence attitudes. But they themselves are empty of any heroic traits.

They know how to criticize and tear down. But they offer no better options to replace what they have destroyed. It is so much easier to be negative than to provide positive models of hope. So what is it I look for in a potential hero - someone who can beneficially influence me?

The quality I most search for in another person is the old fashioned idea of nobility. Now that sounds a little "goody two-shoe," I know. But as I look back on my life, the different people who have been heroes for me have all exhibited this same quality of nobility.

The Apostle Paul expresses it well when he writes:

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is NOBLE, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." [Philippians 4:8-9]

My heroes have not been perfect. But they have all been noble people. What I have learned and seen in them becomes an inspiration for me to become, like them, more noble.

 
• Who have been your heroes in the past, and why? 
• What qualities would you look for in another person who could be a hero for you today?
• What quality would you like to develop further so that you can be a hero to someone else?
• In what ways might you begin to develop that particular quality in your life?