Ask an adult to define leadership, and sometimes you’ll get a blank stare, or a wad of contradictions. Ask a child to do it, and he or she will often have a much easier time. The leader in a kid’s world is the one who can get his friends to do what he wants them to do. Or leadership may begin with the words, “Hey, you know what would be funny?”
One thing adults should know that kids often don’t, however, is that anybody can lead. That skinny, awkwardly-shy girl in third grade may be a corporate CEO or trailblazing missionary in the making. That boy who’s always picked last for the kickball team may own a sports team one day.
Everybody is a potential leader. Leadership is not synonymous with talent or personality types. Leadership ability is not always obvious. And it sure isn’t the same thing as authority.
Leadership is influence. And influence – especially good influence – can be taught. And here’s the really cool part: You can teach a child to influence others without them knowing that’s what you’re doing.
So whether you have kids of your own (works for grandchildren, too), or you work with children in some capacity, here are ten ideas for fostering leadership in the kids in your world. [click to continue…]
Think fast. Salvation aside, if you were to lose everything you own – visible and invisible – what would be the most costly to replace? Your house? Your land? Your health? Your friendships? Your family? Your valuable antiques?
Tough question, isn’t it? But it’s an important one. After all, we spend a great deal of time and money protecting ourselves against possible losses. That’s what the insurance industry is all about. And just as insurance underwriters have a system for determining “replacement value,” we also need a clear sense of what is most valuable. The Bible gives us some direction for that in Proverbs 22:1:
“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
Loving favor rather than silver and gold.”
Your most irreplaceable possession cannot be bought or sold. It isn’t a commodity – like family or health – that can be earned or borrowed. Your most precious possession is your integrity. Your good name!
I can hear some of your brains now. “Oh, THAT! Yeah, I guess so.”
But think about it. [click to continue…]
In the course of this short year so far, I have been reminded suddenly, and sometimes rudely, how short life can be, and how there are no guarantees of the things or people we tend to take for granted in this world.
I have also been reminded that life is filled with the potential to make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes arise out of misguided values. Sometimes out of boneheaded stubbornness. Sometimes mistakes arise out of good things taken too far in self-serving directions. Often those mistakes come when we lose our sense of balance.
I’ve thought a lot lately about how short life is, and frankly, sometimes how much shorter that I wish it could be. Hillsong United’s “Soon” sure sounds appealing: [click to continue…]
It was a surprising experience – seeing old friends, and people I had said good-bye to almost ten years earlier in that south Mississippi town. I was surprised at the warmth of their response. I was surprised at the depth of their respect for me. I was surprised at the intensity with which they prayed and expected good things from this youth retreat I was to lead. I was surprised at how many names I remembered, and how natural it still felt to love them – even though I had not seen them in so long a time.
Needless to say, there was a rush of memories. Like the time I borrowed Don’s reel-to-reel tape recorder, and he said to me at least three times, “Please lock it up in your office.” I forgot. Don didn’t. He went back to check the church the next morning, and there was his tape recorder. (Pause here to shudder).
There were memories of the homes where we held Bible studies. Memories of the King’s Inn – the Christian coffee house we started (the sign still hung outside the deserted building).
I also was reminded of the married adult retreat I was asked to help lead while I was there – and wound up being the only single person on the trip. This really entertained everyone when the other retreat leader was doing his session on marital intimacy. I was not amused. [click to continue…]
You came into the world a bit sooner than you were due, but no sooner than you were planned by your Heavenly Father. And I can’t imagine a more beautiful baby has ever been born, or to more loving parents. While you are our second grandchild, you are our first grandson, and will always be the firstborn of your mama and daddy. For them, this has been a day of labor and risk, of waiting and prayer. And today, February 23, 2010, you have made it worth it all.
You entered a family who has seen its share of joys and sorrows, laughter and tears. But through it all, your family walks with a faith in the heart and love of the living God. Your name means “priest,” and it was well-chosen. You will live as an ambassador between God and humanity. As you trust your life to the Lord Jesus, you will be part of a kingdom of priests – and you will be one of its standard bearers.
Your middle name, David, reflects both a noble family heritage and the Sweet Psalmist and Shepherd of Israel – the man after God’s own heart. I pray that you will spend a lifetime discovering what that means.
You were born into a world filled with change and challenges, and no shortage of opinions. In many ways the world you inherited is not kind. [click to continue…]
The house was profoundly quieter now. The funeral service was a sweet combination of faith-filled worship and fitting tribute. The dozens of family members, cousin-strangers, and delightfully helpful friends and neighbors have retreated back to dock with “normal.” All that remained this evening were my dad, my sister and me.
After thank-you notes, food rearrangement, guest dish collecting and sorting, and a pause for supper, my dad decided to start the process of going through stuff. Her stuff. While my sister began looking through and sorting out her desk, he emptied her purse. Inside was what I suppose is a typical example of a 71-year-old woman’s typical daily haul. A wallet with all the ID cards, insurance and AAA whatevers, and credit cards. A wad of keys. Pills – lots of pills. Fingernail and lip stuff. A comb.
And a receipt.
“Hey,” Daddy said, looking over the receipt. “You know what? I’ll bet she bought me a Valentine card.”
That’s sure what it looked like. A loose receipt in Mama’s purse revealed the purchase of a greeting card sometime early last week or the week before. But where was it hiding?
We started looking everywhere. The desk. Files. Closets. I asked about the car. Alas, no card.
“I sure wish I could find that card,” Daddy kept saying.
Finally, my sister found it in what should have been an obvious place, just above the workspace on her desk. And sure enough, he was right. She had bought him a card that was just waiting for her signature. And here is what it says: [click to continue…]
“I can’t hear in that ear.”
As long as I knew her, Mama was deaf in her right ear. Because of that she was always sensitive to multi-sensory sound. “I can’t stand all this noise,” she would say as the TV, piano, stereo, and/or people talking (I usually had some role in most of that) all converged at one place. Most often, though, I encountered that deafness when I wanted to whisper something SECRET in her ear as a child.
I can still hear in both ears, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been more aware of a cacophony of sound as I am today.
Lubbock to DFW
I guess I may have slept a total of two hours. There were the calls. The updated information. The relaying of information to my adult kids, and back. The processing. The adrenaline rush of a life-in-crisis that demands action. Now! Sleep, miles, and other needs be damned.
This morning I’m feeling general anger at every phone call, interruption, or other delay. It’s never convenient when the phone rings. But today, it feels downright rude. Unless I’m the one calling, of course.
My sister calls while I’m in the security line. She tells me the neurosurgeon has come in and said there is nothing they can do. “He said if they take her off the respirator, she could last until you get here this afternoon…”
“No, don’t wait,” I say. [click to continue…]
I want to take you to a place where, frankly, we aren’t invited. For just a minute, let’s be one of “those” people we often gripe about – those rubberneckers on the highway, who seem fascinated with somebody else’s messes.
In this case, we’re creeping up to a closed bedroom door, where on the other side, we can hear muffled sobs.
A man’s sobs.
A few days ago, somebody from home had rocked his world. The news was bad, and every ounce of optimism he once had was crushed.
You should have been here yesterday. He was really blubbering then. And he will be again tomorrow. Fasting, too. And praying. Lots of praying.
But as he cries and prays and cries and fasts and cries some more, something happens. [click to continue…]
Tense Truth: Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. But we are virtually helpless to reinterpret history for ourselves. We need a Source of truth that isn’t subject to the distortions we bring to hindsight.
+++++++++++++++++++
Ms. Past, she’s such a wicked lady,
Ms. Past, she’s always there a waiting,
She’s the Devil’s favorite tool,
She’ll play you like a fool,
She’ll try until she rules.
-Michael and Stormie Omartian
Whoever said hindsight is 20/20 needs new glasses.
Hindsight is blind as a bat.
It’s a house of mirrors.
You can get more accuracy from a weekend weatherman about a 10-day forecast than you can from looking at life in the mirror.
If hindsight is 20/20, why do historians always argue?
If hindsight is 20/20, why do two people in conflict always tell two completely different stories? (And tell two more a week later?)
If hindsight is 20/20, why does the same event speak to you completely differently from the perspective of a day, a week, a month, a year, or a generation?
If hindsight is 20/20, why does God repeatedly have to remind the children of Israel about their rescue from Egypt and the whole Red Sea episode? I’ll tell you why. [click to continue…]
It isn’t Camelot. It’s a farm in Alabama.
There is no Round Table. But a couple of rectangular ones have been the scene for many card and domino games and never-ending meals served up.
There are no knights on trusty steeds. But an old blue Ford tractor gave way a few years ago to a new John Deere, and I can do some pretty mean jousting of sorts with that.
The house has been modeled and remodeled over time. The barn – the second of my lifetime – is showing its age. But cows still graze in the pasture and give birth to new generations, including a really cute calf born recently that the family named “Peanut.” I will not tell you why.
Adventure waits in all four directions at this place – the home of my great grandparents, my grandparents, and now my parents. [click to continue…]
Ask an adult to define leadership, and sometimes you’ll get a blank stare, or a wad of contradictions. Ask a child to do it, and he or she will often have a much easier time. The leader in a kid’s world is the one who can get his friends to do what he wants them to do. Or leadership may begin with the words, “Hey, you know what would be funny?” 