Good Monday Morning Team! 

Sooooo, I don’t know how YOUR kids and your-SELF are feeling about the first weeks of school beginning, but my two in middle school had to ‘struggle’ through the oh-so-tough days and weeks of, as my husband says: doing nothing!!..lol!

But I am actually not kidding! Those first few weeks?? It seemed the students had been delighting in days of trips to the ice cream store, the lake, the park — all kinds of fun games and activities that these middle school teachers dreamt up for them to ‘fill the days’…And somewhere amongst all this, my husband started to say: “Why don’t they just start school in the middle of September instead of ‘wasting those first few weeks??” …They wouldn’t be missing out on anything important, right??

Well, actually wrong.

Because as we found out, all that time that appeared to be wasted having ‘fun’, actually had a lot of discussion and intention for the kids to get to know each other, to teach some team building techniques and maybe most important of all, learn some LEADERSHIP skills. 

What??!! And Whoa!! SOOO much more was happening than we as parents could have imagined.

And well, I guess those teachers are seeking to SEE just who emerges as the TRUE ‘leaders’ at the school…Like, who will be the biggest and brightest and “best-est” of all?? Because we all know THAT is what makes a leader a real LEADER: someone who is smart, fast, fun, FIRST, just super-duper ‘successful’ all the way around…Those lucky BORN leaders…

Orrrr – are they ‘BRED’ leaders??

“Huhhh?? Now just what are you trying to say?’’…..

Well OK, let’s pause and break this concept down…. First of all: just WHO or WHAT makes a solid leader??

And I think most people would respond like above (looking at skills, academics, popularity) — and if I try to be a LEADER with that definition of the WORD, well then, I cannot be a leader at all…..’Cause well, let’s be honest, I will never be the MOST smart, fun, fast, first or ‘best-est’ of all….

BUT, if I choose a NEW definition of leader, let’s say, what GOD defines a leader to be, well, then I am starting to see that could be ME — and to seek different “leadership qualities’…

And just what would those be??

Well, when I read Jeremain 44:10, it kinda began to become clearer to me:

“To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence (honor,) nor have they followed by laws or decrees…”…

Yup, these were ‘leaders’ who were definitely doing the OPPOSITE of how GOD called them to lead. Sooooo, if I do a flip-a-roo and aim for the OPPOSITE of their actions?? Well, then I WILL land in GODLY LEADERSHIP afterall… 

And this brings me to the LORD-LEAD LEADER “Triple H ” HOLY Character Qualities. And they are the CHOICE to:

1. HOLD FIRM 
2. Be HUMBLE 
3. And HONOR GOD’s ORDER. 

And sooo, we are going to explore a bit more each of those this week….because I truly believe we are ALL, and are ALL CALLED, to be LORD-LEAD-LEADERS to someone, somewhere in our lives – AT ALL TIMES….And when I look at my own small life, I can see that MY BEST ‘leading’ is when I am really SEEKING these three qualities (surprize, surprize, I guess God really does know what HE’s talking about after all..lol!)…

So get ready girls! We have some new GROWTH GOALS to explore this week – and hopefully by the end, we can all see how you (and me!) can all GROW to be LORD LEAD LEADERS in our real lives: no matter where we live, what we do or how we appear we ‘achieve’…

Quick questions to brew on before we go on:

1)What do YOU think makes the best Leader? WHO is a leader you can think of and why did you pick that person? 

2)Do you see yourself as a leader? Why or why not? How would these groups see you?? Your friends? Your family? Your community? 

3)And what qualities do you think GOD would say make the BEST leaders? Do you feel that is true? ….and if so, is it true for you? 

Thanks for taking time to read, think, brew and pray — and together, let’s learn and see what GOD has to say about true leadership this week!….Carol 😉

Ps: “Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever desires to be an overseer (aka: a LEADER) desires a noble task”…1Timothy 3:1

Change-Choice-TRUTH