Blooming Season Family!
Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next weekend? Wild right?
This year is coming to an end.
The holidays will definitely be a bit different this year and our gatherings will be a lot smaller but I know that we can still enjoy the reason behind each special day.
During this season, the way in which we carry ourselves is extremely important because this is the energy/attitude that will transfer over into the new year.
And yes, this is important all year long but it is so helpful to take inventory of your life at the end of the year.
There’s a fact of life that took me a while to learn and that is, “You are responsible for your own life.”
Not God, not your parents, not your mentors, not your friends.
We are responsible for our lives.
We are the decision makers.
God presents us with choices, society presents us with choices, the people in our life present us with choices and we must choose wisely.
In my early 20’s, I was an outcast in my own life. I was going with the flow of the waves.
I wrote a song a few months ago called, ’Titanic’ and there’s a lyric that says :
“All of my life I’ve been, a ship with no captain
Waves threw my overboard and I forgot to swim.”
I was not being a leader in my own life.
An outcast is someone who has been rejected and that is exactly what I did.
I rejected myself.
I rejected every passion and every idea.
Thankfully, things have changed and I have become a leader in my own life, able to make decisions and keep my word to myself.
I still make mistakes, of course, but I have come a long way and I’m working towards getting better.
You do not need to lead a group of people in order for you to consider yourself a leader because you are your own leader, always and at all times.
So on today’s blog, I am going to share 5 qualities of an irresponsible leader.
Why irresponsible?
- So we can get a clear picture of destructive patterns that we may have in our own lives.
- So we can see how a seemingly small quality can have a large negative impact in our lives.
- And last but not least, so we could do the exact opposite and become responsible leaders in our lives.
This week, I was studying Isaiah 56 in the Bible and I came across 4 verses that described, “Israel’s irresponsible leaders.”
In those 4 verses we can see 5 different qualities :
- Being without knowledge
- Being without understanding
- Loving to slumber (Referring to laziness)
- A mighty appetite and never has enough
- Selfishness
Let’s dig into these qualities.
Quality #1 and quality #2 go well together, don’t you think?
What good is knowledge without understanding?
Knowledge is completely useless without understanding because it is through understanding that we are able to apply the knowledge to our daily lives.
For example :
I know that it is important to eat healthy in order for me to have good/high energy.
This has been scientifically proven. The healthier you eat, the more energy you will have.
That is knowledge.
My understanding of this will come to me through experience.
One day, after a few cheap meals and not one single sip of water, I truly understood the value of eating healthy.
This understanding is the driving force behind my decision making process when it comes to my daily food choices.
And we can apply this to every thing in our lives.
What good is knowledge of God without understanding His Heart?
What good is knowledge of your loved ones without understanding their unspoken language which is learned by investing quality time with them?
The next qualities we’re going to look at are #3 and #4.
Laziness leads to selfishness.
Before we get into that, I want to make sure we know that there is a difference between self care and selfishness.
If we get lazy with our self care, we will never have overflowing cups that naturally impact the lives that surround us in a positive way.
How do you practice self care?
If you do not have a self care routine, please create one and implement it immediately because it will help you give all of the gifts/talents that you’ve been given with grace and love.
Laziness, in general, will keep you from serving and keep you from going the extra mile.
And isn’t that why we’re here?
To be of service in our world and to give all that we’ve got within us to give.
But we cannot accomplish this while being lazy or selfish.
The last quality that we will be looking at, is #4 on the list, which is the mighty appetite that never has enough.
A leader that is never satisfied within themselves, will expect from others, what they cannot even do themselves.
An undisciplined appetite will bite the heads off of the people around them and suck all of their energy.
What does an undisciplined appetite look like?
Distraction, lacking focus and intention.
That means that this mighty appetite will waste time/energy digging into things that lead to dead ends, conversations that do not result in uplifting encouragement and projects without a centered intention.
We can apply this when it comes to leading ourselves as well.
Are you always unsatisfied? Are you never content?
Do you feel like you need to achieve a certain level of success in order to feel complete?
We need to constantly discipline our appetites because we’re human and our natural desire is MORE AND MORE.
Looking into these qualities has inspired me to become a better leader to myself and others.
I hope they inspire you as well.
Keep these qualities in mind at the dinner table next week on Thanksgiving.
You and I are leaders my friends.
Comments
Post a Comment