Who Are You Training? Yes, YOU!

So, if you read this title and thought, “this doesn’t apply to me”, you are wrong. “But”, you say, “I’m not a leader.” Again, you are wrong!

Answer this: are you serving anywhere? maybe at church? in your community? in your family? do you hold down a job? are you teaching a class? are you seeking to live out your Christian faith on a daly basis?

If you can say yes to any of those questions, then…you ARE a leader! SO, now that we have that settled, my next question is this: Who are you training to take your place? “Hold on….take my place? I like my place! Besides I do NOT know how to train anyone.”

All I mean is this…who are you pouring into what God is pouring into you? To whom are you teaching the skills and wisdom you know? In whom do you desire to see Christ grow?

Here’s the deal…we are ALL interim…no matter where we are, what we do, or what age we happen to be. None of us will be here forever. God may choose to move us to a new city. Hopefully, if you have kids, they will grow up and move out and must be equipped! (I know that’s taking longer today than ever before!) And, ultimately, one day, we will ALL die! (Unless Jesus comes back before we do!)

Since, as Christian women, all we do is for Jesus, then it’s all His…every day, every relationship, every task. If you were called to leave where you serve right now, how would your task be carried out? If it’s all about you, then it may not be carried out at all.

Our desire should be to invest in those around us, so that if we are gone, they could do what we do. Certainly not in exactly the same way, and maybe even better! But the question is, what do we leave behind when we do leave?

Think about who “trained” you? Who taught you the things you know? Who taught you how to live a Christlike life? Who equipped you in your career? Now, to whom are you teaching those same things? And just how are we training them?

In Matthew 20:25-28, Jesus talks about the kind of “leadership” he wants us to exhibit and teach:

“Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As you live out today, are you seeking to boss people around (as I’m prone to doing way too often), or are you serving others as Jesus did? My word this year is “selfless” and I’m seeing over and over again why the Lord gave me that word. I have SO far to go.

Investing in others who have a servants heart is so rewarding as we watch them live selflessly and reach out to others in love. We are to model and teach women to have a servant’s heart.

As you walk your journey in life (or as Paul says in Hebrews 12:1-2, run this race…with endurance), would you be willing to share what you know with those God brings into your journey? Then, they can take what you share with them and entrust it to someone else. What a wonderful way to leave behind a legacy that lasts well beyond our time on earth.