We’ve been interested in encouraging husbands and wives for quite a while. From what we see in North America, our environment isn’t an easy place for couples to thrive. Marriage is hard. It takes perseverance, effort and huge helpings of grace. A little encouragement from others can go a long way, especially from a person in leadership.
Have you ever tried to encourage couples you lead?
“I am doing just fine.” I blurted. I lied to myself; I thought if I wanted the words to be true and then spoke them aloud to my concerned friend, I might convince my frozen emotions to respond appropriately. I knew the drill. I was an actress. Not on the big screen or Broadway, of course, but I expertly manipulated people and situations, putting a cheerful smile on my face to assure everyone all was well, while inside I wished I could die. I hid my real self. I was good at impersonating. On the outside, I appeared professional and appropriate to my roles.
The rise of the #MeToo movement – and most especially the recent U.S. Senate hearings regarding the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh – has more than a few men feeling very vulnerable in the workplace, most especially about false accusations.
I’ve heard that from men. And recently the sentiment was very publicly expressed when Donald Trump Jr., the father of three sons and two daughters, said that the #MeToo movement has him more worried for his sons than for his daughters.
“So, do you like it?” she asked cautiously, expecting me to offer a less-than-approving comment.
“Like it? I love it!”
“Well, it isn’t the nicest house in town, but we worked to get it ready for you the best we could.”
I couldn’t say enough to assure the wife of the church trustee that this three-bedroom parsonage was absolutely wonderful. Compared to the apartments and, more recently, the 60-foot trailer we’d lived in during the past five years, this was a mansion!
I love avocados. They add a nice touch to a ham sandwich. And without them we wouldn’t enjoy guacamole with our chips. But avocados also provide a good metaphor for a healthy leader. Every leader needs a strong inner spiritual and emotional core, what I call a healthy spiritual immune system that helps us ward off leadership viruses like people pleasing, margin-less leadership, and inflexibility. Here’s how an avocado pictures a healthy leader.
In 1993 Tina Turner released the song “What’s Love Got to Do with It” as part of the launch of her biographical movie of the same title. The premise of the song is that “love”, the emotion, has nothing to do with the relationship she is singing about. In fact, love is pointed as an “old-fashioned notion.” Thankfully we know that love has a lot to do with relationships and it’s often the presence of pure, unconditional love that many people aspire to experience. Love remains a powerful and influential force in the world today and this includes the workplace. This becam
The night I found out Julie (real name withheld) had moved in with her boyfriend, my mind reeled in unbelief. Julie had been a regular in my women’s Bible study group and on our college leadership team. I couldn’t believe she had become a ‘lost lamb.’
Lost lambs are people we’ve been discipling or mentoring who choose to live in sin and walk away from the Lord. Here are some principles I’ve learned that might help you, too, deal with lost lambs.
I’ve learned to love God’s Word. I became a follower of Jesus a long time ago but often found the Old Testament to be somewhat challenging to read, especially the pronunciation of the Hebrew names. I found that I would skip over them or just skip certain books like Numbers to avoid them. God challenged my thinking about that several years ago. So, I started reading the Bible using an app that would also read to me as I read along. I concluded that if God put my name in His Book to tell a story, then I would want others to read my name and story.
When you’re hearing a new concept do you dig into what you don’t quite understand? Or do you let the fuzzy bits just pass by?
Sure, it’s not always possible to understand everything immediately when you’re learning to lead like Jesus. But it’s important to continue digging.
Dig until you get it.
Why? Because what you learn from digging might just change your view on everything in life.
Here’s a personal experience that reinforces this understanding.
We are bombarded with daily messages about having and using the right make-up, bath soap, toothpaste, or mouthwash. We are, expected to have the right smell, whiter teeth, and especially the right image. The internet, television, radio and print media tell us we should weigh less, be leaner and fitter, have a certain size or ideal body type.
