Cultivating Leaders
This week, I was honored to be a guest blogger for ARC women. I thought I’d share my blog from there here, as well.
As a mother of two small boys, I often find my days consumed in the ever-present needs of shoe-tying, nose-wiping, dinner-making, toilet-cleaning, and fight-refereeing. By the time my kids are sleeping peacefully in their beds each night, I feel as if I’ve accomplished monumental feats, and yet, if I had to try to quantify what exactly it is that I did to someone else, it may not sound all that impressive a list.
What I’m trying to say is that right now, with a 5 year old and a 2 year old, my days can feel pretty low on the significance factor. I don’t preach 2 sermons each Sunday like my husband. I don’t help patients with heart problems like my dear friend who is a cardiac specialist. I don’t even get to show the end result of a painting I’ve labored over like an artist friend of mine. I’ve fought discouragement over this topic, wondering what it is that I’m doing with my life in the greater scheme of things.
This could seem like an odd start to a blog entitled “Cultivating Leaders,” but hear me out. There’s nothing I could be doing right now that will have a more direct impact on the future of leadership than helping to shape the lives of my two sons. They are potential world changers, and no one will get more of a chance at impacting their life’s course than my husband and I. Every day that I wipe noses, referee fights, or make their dinner, I am cultivating leaders.
As a pastor’s wife, I get a weekly slot of time in which I can touch lives and hopefully impact them for the better. As a mother, I get hours upon hours of life to show my boys the way of the Lord and help them into discovering their own passion and love for Jesus. Can you see why I chose to highlight this aspect of leadership cultivation? In terms of impact, it’s a no-brainer.
Cultivate leaders in your churches, by all means! But don’t look so far into the crowd that you miss the tiny eyes and sticky hands that are waiting for guidance right in your own home. Cultivating leaders begins right now.