A Little Fellow Follows Me
I want to be a great Father more than anything. Both Heidi and I are beyond proud of our sons, and we feel privileged to be parents to them. We want our sons to have worthy mentors and role models in us. We want them to feel equipped to face life with confidence and strength because they have seen us do so.
I also want to be a great coach — a man who guides and directs others towards fulfilling lives of leadership and joy. I want to be someone who encourages others and shows the best way. Plato said, “The first and best victory is to conquer self.” And Charles Spurgeon, a Baptist minister and evangelist in the mid-1800’s got right to the point on the same topic when he said, “A man has no right to rule others, who cannot rule himself.”
Self-leadership is the key to leading and influencing others. In fact, Orchard was primarily set up as a discipleship and mentoring ministry that works to build missional and service-oriented lions into courageous, compassionate, men of strong character! I talk self-leadership with my sons and Young Lions all the time. It requires lots of humility, responsibility, honesty, and ownership. It takes a man to own up to his mistakes and glare into his own shortcomings to then improve and grow. The fruits of the Spirit, require real discipline: especially self-control. Those who are living well are living disciplined and they understand that is where their influence comes from.
John Wooden was one of these great men. He also happened to be one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. Wooden led the UCLA Bruins to ten national championship victories including seven in a row between 1967 and 1973. After his son was born, he received a framed picture as a gift from a book publishing company he worked with at the time. It showed a man walking along the beach and his son bounding behind him trying to step in the man’s exact footprints. And beneath that image was the following poem, written by Reverend Claude Wisdom White, Sr.
A Little Fellow Follows Me
A careful man I want to be —a little fellow follows me.
I do not dare to go astray, for fear he’ll go the self-same way.
I cannot once escape his eyes. Whatever he sees me do he tries.
Like me he says he’s going to be —that little chap who follows me…
He knows that I am big and fine —And believes in every word of mine.
The base in me he must not see —that little chap who follows me…
But after all it’s easier, that brighter road to climb,
With little hands behind me —to push me all the time.
And I reckon I’m a better man than what I used to be…
Because I have this lad at home who thinks the world of me.
When I was last in Zambia, little Junior, pictured below, never left my side. In fact, he was often holding my hand, even if I was carrying something, or trying to share a message. He was right there! Junior made me think about this poem yet again. I know he needs someone in his life to love and guide him. Everyone does.
We are all setting an example for others. We are all impacting those around us, and most importantly, the next generation. Whether you know it or not, or like it or not, eyes are on us. Especially little, younger eyes. They’re watching how we handle difficulty. They’re listening to the words we choose to use. And they’re mimicking and following closely, the patterns we set before them. This is a sobering thought. Sadly, more times than I wish to admit, I fail in my responses of shortness or impatience. Of complaint or negativity. But today’s a new day. We can lead ourselves in such a way today that we will be proud of the path we set before the little ones that follow us. We cannot and will not do this perfectly, but it’s worth the effort to become the best version of yourself…for the little fellows who follow us. Let’s do it for our sons and daughters. Let’s do it for Junior.