Leading Yourself

I've finally found time to post the following words that I had shared with my Network, now known as EMANATE at our gathering last month. I am absolutely excited about where God is taking us in this new season as we look forward to the new things that He has in store for us. 

A question that I've been thinking about recently is "Who, or what is leading you?" 

A natural instinct that we all have is to follow and rely on someone, whether it is a friend, a partner, a sibling, a parent, or a leader. Then there are also factors such as fear, pride, sin and our past that also affect the decisions that we make in life. However, what if that person wasn't around anymore? Would you still be able to function on your own? What if a certain factor did not have a stronghold over your life - how much further would you be? There will be decisions that we will have to make on our own, in order to grow in life and to follow God's calling for our lives. 

It takes personal leadership and initiative to be good at an instrument or sport, in finishing your university course, in finding a job, in keeping healthy friendships and relationships and in being a passionate follower of Christ, through your personal walk with Him. Also, in order to lead others, whether it be a small or large capacity, we need to know how to lead ourselves first. I'm a strong believer in the following quote: "Give a person fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime." I think that we not only need to learn how to lead ourselves but we need to teach others what it means to take leadership of their own lives as well.

How you lead your life will affect your future, both in the short and long term. Therefore, it is important that we all learn to lead ourselves in our attitudes, in our giftings, in our decisions and in our circles of influence, no matter how you feel, no matter what other people say and no matter the circumstance. 

I'm going to wrap this up with the lyrics of a Switchfoot song: "This is your life, are you who you want to be? This is your life, is it everything that you dreamed that it would be when the world was younger, and you had everything to lose?"