When we were younger my three siblings and I gave my mother many opportunities to use that expression as we tried out the latest “cool” behaviors we had seen from our friends or schoolmates.

A neighbor named Lila, was a couple years older than me. I always watched with admiration as she would run up behind her horse, plant her hands on his hindquarters and vault onto his back. I thought that was the coolest thing, so of course I had to try it with my pony, Dolly. When my younger sister saw me doing it, she wanted to try also.

Well, either we weren’t as good at vaulting as Lila, or maybe Dolly wasn’t as patient, or perhaps both. My younger sister ended up getting kicked in the face. Fortunately she wasn’t seriously hurt. My mom made sure that we never tried that trick again.

I was reminded of the “Monkey see, monkey do” expression one day as I was cleaning stalls in the barn. I looked out and saw two of our horses, Ginger and Carmel, standing by the gate in the back pasture. We had recently replaced some fencing and I had left a partial roll of wire fence in the pasture.

I watched as Carmel pawed at the fence with one of his front feet. I planned to remove the roll from the pasture when I was done in the barn, but as I turned to finish cleaning, I saw Ginger begin to paw the roll also. It was like she had been watching Carmel and thought how much fun pawing the fence looked, so she just had to give it a try also.

The only problem was that Ginger had shoes on. When she pawed the fence roll the edge of her shoe hooked over a strand of the wire. When her hoof returned to the ground, she pulled the fence along with her. Of course this frightened her and she started running. The roll of fencing was firmly attached and followed her as she ran.

I was horrified and started running toward her. Fortunately she had the good sense to stop after she had run only a little way and stood calmly waiting for me to rescue her. I was able to unhook the wire from her shoe and free her from the fence. When I thought what might have happened to Ginger, I was angry at myself for having left the fence roll in the pasture.

Having three daughters of my own, I was all too aware of how easy it is for people to imitate bad behavior, but that was the first time I had seen such a clear case of it in horses.

Imitation can be a good thing. In fact the bible calls us to be imitators. The key is who or what we are imitating. We should be imitators of Christ/God or godly people, not imitators of the foolish things of this world. One of the verses that challenges me is 1 Corinthians 11:1 where Paul encourages people to imitate him, as he is imitating Christ.

Are we living the kind of lives that we would want others to imitate? Let's not make easy excuses for ourselves like "No one's perfect," but strive to be godly people worthy of imitation.

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. 3 John 1:11

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. Ephesians 5:1