I’m dressed and ready to go, but I can’t find my boots. I look for them in the closet, but they aren’t there.

As I make my way through the house, sticking my head into each room I ask, "Has anyone seen my boots?"

I walk into the living room to find Chloe and Cole sitting in front of the television. They have this vacant look on their faces that they get whenever the TV is on. I stand in front of the screen, blocking their view. "Chloe, Cole, do you know where my boots are?"

Without making eye contact (in fact, they crane their necks at impossible angles to look around me), they point to the corner of the room. There, I see my discarded boots.

Finding my boots is getting harder to do these days. Chloe and Cole enjoy putting my boots on and walking around in them. It means that I may (or may not) find my boots literally anywhere in the house.

I don’t mind them walking around in my boots. What I do mind is when they take them off and leave them where I can’t find them.

Chloe and Cole’s activities with my boots remind me of an old saying; A quick Internet search will reveal several different versions of it, but the one I’m most familiar with is, "If you want to know a man, walk a mile in his shoes."

While the statement is figurative, I wonder if Chloe and Cole are literally walking around in my boots because they want to know me; because they want to be like me.

It also makes me wonder whether I’m walking in the shoes of my heavenly father.

Jesus Christ gives us the example we are to follow. He shows us the shoes (or in his case, sandals) that we are to walk in.

Jesus was a representative of our heavenly father (John 1:1-2). He stood opposed to sin (Luke 5:32), yet had compassion on sinners (Matthew 9:36). He taught others what God expected of them (Matthew 5-7), and he eased the suffering of those who needed his help (Luke 4:40).

These are shoes we all should be trying to walk in. If we walk in his shoes, we’ll come to know him better. And if we come to know him better, we’ll continue walking in his shoes.

Am I walking in my father’s shoes? Yes, but I know I could be doing a better job.

How about you?

Parrish Myers is a local minister. His column appears biweekly in Sunday Life and on gainesvilletimes.com/life.