Something I read today, according to the file it’s attirbuted to Zig Ziglar but I couldn’t verify that. However I found it interesting.

Several years ago (some folks analyzed the information about people) listed in Who’s Who of America. They discovered that it took 25,000 laboring families to produce one child who would be listed in Who’s Who. It required 10,000 families where the father was a skilled craftsman; 5,000 lawyers, 6,000 Baptist preachers, 5,000 Presbyterian preachers, 2,500 dentists, and only 1,200 Episcopalian preachers or priests to produce someone listed in Who’s Who.

However, every seven Christian missionary families produced a member of Who’s Who. I can only speculate as to why the remarkable difference. Surely most of the preachers from the various denominations were men and women of faith, but I believe the missionaries, in most cases, demonstrated a stronger commitment. Their example demonstrated their faith and courage to their children. Also, they probably did not have many “things” to give to their children, but the mother and father, with fewer distractions, daily newspapers and television, were probably spending an unusual amount of time with them. The kids had a day-to-day example to look to and a chance to study what real success was all about. Needless to say, they were teaching and preaching the Bible every day and felt a unique relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly, this role modeling and demonstration of their faith played a significant part in the development of the children.

All of us have heard that we teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are, which is exactly what God tells us in Luke 6:40 (NKJ). “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.” As a young father, my mother repeatedly said to me, “Son, your children more attention pay to what you do than what you say.”

In many cases, the missionary had to learn to communicate in a different language and get along with people of different cultures, which brought about a maturing of the youngsters. Then, when the kids returned to America to live, they had a chance to view the difference in the opportunities in America and they capitalized on those opportunities.