Sarah has been fixated on 3 hole punching paper. At first I found all these round paper hole “chads” on the kitchen counter and on the dining room table. I wondered where they were coming from. Was Sarah making confetti at school?

Later in the evening I found her sitting at the dining room table 3-hole punching all of my leftover Christmas letter paper. By the time I saw what was happening, it was too late. She had just finished punching out the last stash of paper.

“Yeah, she has been doing that a lot lately.” David said as I held up my Christmas newsletter paper.

“Where did she find it?”  I shook my head that it was one more thing she has gotten into.

I had no idea what this fixation was all about until I saw old binders that Kendall left behind on the computer desk. They were placed with Jack’s school notebooks and binders.

“Jill, she made her own binders so she could be like Jack.” David said.

Sure enough, I opened up the binders and there was the Christmas paper she punched out as well as all the extra loose leaf paper we had in the house. She had used all of Kendall’s old binders, then made her own binding by taking string and lacing it through the paper holes.

It was so sweet that she wanted to be like her brother!

It reminds me of the time when Kendall was 10 years old and got her ears pierced. When we came home from the mall, Sarah was fascinated by Kendall’s new earrings. Kendall, who was not too happy about the pain, let Sarah examine her ears. She showed her the earrings we bought as well. The fascination didn’t stop. It was obvious that Sarah wanted her ears pierced, too.

But could she handle it? Would she pull out the earrings? Could she keep the post earrings in her ears for the 6 weeks required? Would she understand the pain that getting your ears pierced causes? After trying our best to explain it to her, we let her get her ears pierced too.

We went after school one day and Sarah was extremely giddy when we got to the store. She picked out the studs she wanted and eagerly sat in the chair. When the technician examined and prepped her ears she looked at me in bewilderment. She said that Sarah had marks on her earlobes. She said it looked like Sarah tried to pierce her own ears.

It broke my heart that Sarah wanted so desperately to be like her sister and imitate her that she tried to pierce her ears herself.

It makes me think of Ephesians 5:1, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Sarah’s imitation comes from fascination and fixation of what she is trying to emulate. She studies and copies what she sees.

How this needs to be true in my own life! If I am to be an imitator of God, I need to study His Word intently, follow it so closely that it becomes second nature to me. What a challenging thought to live a life that it is a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God! How would my thoughts and actions change?

I want to keep one sheet of the Christmas newsletter paper as a reminder that I am called to be an imitator of Christ! I want to study Him closely so I emulate the heart and mind of Christ in my daily actions and conversations.

Thank you, Sarah, for your example! You continue to challenge and inspire me!