Who do you follow?

The people that you choose to follow through life; your parents, your friends, your spouse, your boss, your pastor, all of these people have the ability to make or break your spiritual life.

Parents are the number one influence during the early years in our lives. How they respond to stress, how they discipline and how they generally lived their life had a major impact on who we are today.

Friends; do you remember peer pressure? The biggest mistakes we made as adolescents can almost always be trace backed to a decision we made to follow someone else down the wrong path.

Spouse; he/she in most cases will be the driving influence in our life spiritually. They will either enable us to be a good steward for God or they will make it very difficult to stay on the straight and narrow path.

The boss, for most of us will be several different people through out our lives. They are in a position to have the biggest influence in our day to day life. The power they have over us can cause many stressful days, if they do not know how to use that position of authority wisely.

The Pastor, of all the people in our lives the pastor is the only person, that most people turn to when they are in need. They see their pastor as the neutralizer to a bad week, the channel to god's help and the person GOD has placed into their life that will make it all better.

So where am I going with this, right?

We are; the parents, the friends, the spouse, the boss, and we are all ministers for Jesus Christ.

The influence we have on others directly impacts their future in Christ.

As parents it is imperative we live a Christ like life for our children. They need to see us love each other and serve each other. If we can be deliberate in our walk with Christ it will be natural for our children to follow us.

As friends our goal is to live a Christ like life and support our friends through fellowship and accountability.

As a spouse we need to walk in Christ together. If your spouse is not yet saved, then live your life in a way that truly represents God and allow your life to influence him/her.

As a boss, God has placed you in a position of authority for a reason. He's ultimate plan may not be clear to you. So, care about your employees and their families. Do your best to support them and develop them. If you take the time to truly know them they will begin to trust you. If you gain their trust your influence will be greater.

People tend to reflect their leader, if you spend your day gossiping and talking trash about others, lying and be deceitful, being immoral and lack the fore site to communicate, it wont be long and those who choose to follow you will follow you to their unfruitful end. BUT, if you are of strong moral character, compassionate for others and communicate a strong vision of the future, those who chose to follow will grow both spiritually and professionally.

As a minister in your church and community your life is going to touch many people as you go about your day. These lost souls need to be shown their way to Christs love. They need to be shown that we all have a direct connection with God through prayer and though that prayer all things can be be made whole.


So, who do you follow? I pray that your answer is GOD.

Lord, let our actions lead others to follow you. Give us the wisdom and courage to lead others through our walk with you.

Are you perfect?

I recently finished reading an awesome book by John Maxwell "The 360 Degree Leader". I could blog to you all day about the awesome ideas John has but I think you would get more out of it by reading the book for yourself.

But I would like to cover one topic that I think is key to being a effective influential leader.

BE REAL...

Enough said right. You would think so. But many people have this flaw including myself at one time or another.

So lets take a few moments and clarify what it means to BE REAL.

Lets start by admitting your faults. A lot of leaders have a simple issue with this one. They believe that they have to be all knowing and never show any weakness. Problem is that they are fooling themselves if they think the team doesn't know about their short comings. This isn't about being weak this about admitting your flaws so your team sees you as an authentic (real) person. In doing this you will become approachable and trustworthy in their eyes

Next Stop worrying about what others think of you, You need to live your life for yourself and GOD. You will have more people unhappy with you by pretending to be someone you aren't then if you JUST BE YOURSELF. Present the Christ like person you are and you will be happy with yourself and that is what really matters.

Next be willing to learn from others, try to approach each person you meet with the attitude that they have something of value to give you. If you can open your mind and heart to the people around you and let them ADD VALUE to you, you will become more approachable and trust worthy in their eyes. By doing this you have created a connection with them and in turn add value to them.

Last but not least, Do not be Prideful. Influence is not about knowledge and titles. You can not gain a true leadership relationship with someone by impressing them. Being the center of attention will not get you very far with your team. Instead try focusing on the needs of others, lead through service and place their needs before yours.

In others words don't pretend to be perfect, because we are not.

in gods love

How do you set Priorities in your life.

TIME and Priority go hand in hand. Not enough time in the day to do the things you need to do let alone do the things you want to do, so what do you do with the time you have?

I have heard people say "if I only had 2 more hours in a day!" Well I guaranty that if God changed the day to a 26 hour day you would still ask for two more hours. So instead of wishing for more time, lets try and budget our time to be more effective.

Stewardship isn't just about money it is about time as well. God gave us everything we need; we just need to figure out what we are really supposed to be doing with our time and all else will fall into place.

How are you determining where you should spend the time God has given you? What is at the top of your list? NO, don't just say God; really take stock in your life and write it down. What comes first, second and so forth?

Now make a second column and this time write how you think God wants you to spend your time.

Do they match, probably not. So now we need to figure out how to re-organize our time to meet Gods expectations. Just like in your financial budget there is going to be things that you may have to sacrifice to do Gods work.

So lets take a shot at it.

1. GOD
2. Family
3. ????

See here is the issue. God may be number one, but number one has many parts to it, and there may be things that you feel fit into the category of doing God's work but do they really belong on your list? Should you really be focusing your time on them?

Or can you be doing other things that are going to be a greater impact in God's Kingdom?

I challenge you to write it down, then pray on each item and see if God is really leading you to do those things. Then meet with your spouse and compare lists and pray again.

I pray that each of us, are not only leading our life's and family for God, but that we are leading them effectively. We can do so much more for God when our abilities, resources and goals are all in line.

GOD BLESS

First day at new job !!

WOW!! Today was over whelming, so many new faces and names. But I felt very relaxed all the way through the day. That in it self just reaffirmed that it is in GODS hands. Everyone and I do mean everyone I talked to today made me feel like I was the only person that matter at that moment.

Lesson there right? ADD VALUE TO EVERYONE YOU MEET.

I must really be worth something after today. LOL

I went to lunch with the outgoing supervisor who is stepping back down to work under me as a tech. This guy really has a heart for GOD, I asked if we could pray over our food and he took the lead and started praying.

God has so blessed our lives with this opportunity, I know that he is going to do great things through it.

In everything give thanks

There are two kinds of people. Those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord," and those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good Lord, it's morning."

Did you have your quiet time with the Lord this morning?

Have an Awesome day in Jesus.