One of the worst pieces of advice you can receive and follow in this life is: “Be yourself”. The world stamps this advice on t-shirts, social media, and songs. And, with great pride, they say: “You have to be you, you are unique”. It is a word that is supposed to motivate people and free them from following others.

I understand the idea of you not being worried about looking at the lives of others and trying to imitate them.

It is common for a young man to have idols, people he admires, who he believes are successful. Then, he begins to imitate them (with their hair and how they dress). The result of this is that most young people are copycats. Even those who say: “I am myself” are unaware that they are impersonating someone.

No one can survive without imitating what you see in people at some level, in some way. This is not necessarily bad. It is written: “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children” (Ephesians 5:1). It is typical for the son, as a child, to want to imitate the father. He wants to wear the same shirt and support the same football team. However, when his son stops being a child and changes to adolescence, he wants to do the opposite of his father. He rules out his father’s example. This is the common path that people follow. The teenager begins to have problems because he doesn’t imitate his father (who is mature and loves him) and begins to imitate his school friends.

We were created in the image and likeness of God. The word “Christian” means that we are imitators of Christ because He is the standard of perfection, the example of everything a person should aim to be.

So, it’s not wrong to imitate the Creator. The problem is to imitate someone who doesn’t even know what they’re doing with their lives and just wants to set trends and have followers.

Returning to the “be yourself” advice, why is this one of the worst pieces of advice we can receive? Think a little: “I have to be me. But who am I? What’s inside me?” By the Word of God, we know that there is precisely the opposite of what we should imitate within us. Inside our hearts are evil thoughts, adultery, malice, and jealousy. Because we are already born with this inheritance of sin within us, if I bring this out, I will be unbearable, a life-destroyer, proud, it is all bad. And that won’t bring me happiness.

Therefore, following this advice is the worst thing you can do. You have to understand that you are not the same, but you are not the standard that should not need to improve. You should try to imitate God (in character, thoughts, and goals). What would Jesus do if He was in your place? Imitate Who is worthy of being imitated.

Reflect and check out the entire message in the video above.