July 2010
Values for Leadership: Timeless Wisdom for Godly Leadership
Life Values: The principles that shape leader’s lives
John Maxwell says, “If you want to be proactive in the way you live your life, if you want to influence your life’s direction, if you want your life to exhibit the qualities you find desirable, and if you want to live with integrity, then you need to know what your values are, decide to embrace them, and practice them every day.”
Whether we realize it or not, our lives are shaped by our values. From the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you drift off to sleep at night, your actions are guided by the values that you hold most dear. If you’re a thoughtful believer, those values are shaped by the Word of God.
Society seeks to impose its set of values upon you; however, these values are often contrary to God’s Word and, thus, to your own best interests. The world makes promises that it simply can’t fulfill. It promises happiness, contentment, prosperity, and abundance. But genuine abundance is not a byproduct of possessions or status; it is a byproduct of your thoughts, actions, and your relationship with God.
Each day we make countless decisions, decisions that hopefully can bring us into a closer relationship with our heavenly Father. When His values become our values, then we share in His abundance and His peace. But when we put the world’s priorities above His priorities, then we will, in time, suffer the consequences of our shortsightedness.
As leaders, we live in a world that is filled with countless opportunities to make decisions that can pull us, our families, and those we work with either toward or away from God’s will. Leading those under our care toward the abundance and peace that God’s Word speaks of means that we need to be able to discern Godly values from worldly values, and lead people in the right direction.
Read the other articles in this issue:
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