Working Together As A Team!

Scripture tells us in Isaiah 41:10- Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.  In those most difficult times, we must remember we are not alone, because God is with us.  But it does not stop there; God works through each of us to ensure that we come together as a team to support and lift each other up.  

God teaches success is achieved when we come together as one body as one team committed to achieving the purpose for which we have been called.  The "we" will always outperform the "me".  Scripture reiterates this message as follows:  

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor-Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

As iron sharpens Iron, one person sharpens another-Proverbs 27:17

…that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions amongst you 1 Corinthians 1:10

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity-Psalms 133:1

…let us consider how we may spur one another towards love and good deeds-Hebrews 10:24

From him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work-Ephesians 4:16

There are many other scriptures I can cite, but in the end, the message is the same, working in a silo will never lead to the success that can be achieved if we work together as a team. Teamwork is not an easy concept as it requires the ability to come together despite our differences, to understand the value each team member possesses, and to find a way to focus on the strengths while mitigating the challenges.  That is how we make the impossible, possible! 

Five Practices To Keep Your Ego in Check!

I wanted to share this insight I learned a while ago about keeping our egos in check.  The ego is defined as the I or Self of a person, a person as thinking, feeling, and willing.  It is one’s ability to distinguish oneself from others and the objects of one’s thoughts.   The “you” and your ability to keep the “you” in check are critical to how you lead others.  So how do you ensure that the “you” doesn’t turn others off, try applying these five practices to keep your ego in check:

Be respectful, be polite to others even when they are not so polite to you; a servant leader serves despite the difficulties/challenges others bring to the table. 

Be teachable, open to learning from others, you do not know it all even if you think you do. 😊  Read, read, read…There are a lot of great leadership materials that you can read and learn from. 

Listen more, talk less, I make a conscious effort to let others talk and listen to their point of view rather than always interjecting my perspective.  It is not a competition but rather a collaboration towards achieving the best results. Perhaps a challenging approach, but it is doable. 

Appreciate others for who they are if you appreciate each person for who they are, they will be more inclined to appreciate who you are.  Give credit to others for the goals that are achieved versus taking the credit.  Make it about the “We” instead of the “me”.

Relax, particularly when you feel yourself being triggered- take deep breaths and remember you control your emotions, not others.  Even the worst circumstances require that we maintain emotional control to respond intelligently. 

 

 

Hope For Tomorrow!

In Jesus’ time, people presented him with their problems and the challenges resulting from them.  You had the blind man by the pool of water, always trying to dip himself at the right time to regain his vision.  There was the man called Lazarus who was dead when Jesus arrived but alive when he left.  You had the woman who was a prostitute and was to be stoned to death as required by the law until Jesus showed up and proclaimed, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. There was also the tax collector who was one of the most despised in those times, yet Jesus chose to dine in his home and make him part of his team.  In each of those situations, Jesus didn’t see the obstacles but instead saw the possibilities, and miracles happened.  

We need to always hold on to God's promises and the assurance that all things are possible if we simply believe.  God's grace is sufficient to carry us through the storm into the brightness of the rainbow.  Today the world is often in a stage of chaos, full of impossibilities.  But if we view it through the lens of God's word, then we can come together and make the impossible, possible! 

Loving God's Way!

God gave us two great commandments outlined in Matthew 22:37-40. We are to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

He does not stop there, he goes on to provide us His definition of love found in 1 Corinthians 13, which states: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails..."

Practicing love as God defines it assures us we won't fail. Perhaps it is easier said than done, but I'm never going to stop trying. Just a little advice to go!

Unity In Christ

Today more than ever, we see the finger pointing and accusations of ungodliness and betrayal levied by christians against their family members, fellow christians, and even unbelievers.  I focus each day and morning on doing all I can to be Christ centered, a reflection of His love and His word, for His glory.  That precludes me from pointing the finger, something God had to reveal to me.  It demands that every thing I say and do be for his honor and glory, not for mine.  We are to honor each other as believers as we are called to love the broken and disenfranchised, to care for the lost, and to love others as Christ loved them.  

Let our actions serve not to glorify ourselves, but rather to glorify and honor God.  Neither will happen if our actions reflect condemnation and disrespect towards each other.  Christ saved us by His sacrifice on the cross, that we might be saved by His grace; His unmerited favor.  We should be praying for God to let our light shine so bright that others might see our good works and glorify God.  This is not about us, but about living every day for God’s glory, letting His light shine brightly.  Let us be united in Christ!  Just a little advice to go! 

Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

Always Being Right, Isn't Right!

There is nothing more competitive than seven boys living in a three-bedroom apartment struggling because of the poverty within which you are being raised.  You are trapped in that apartment competing for your mother's attention, competing to see who gets served first so that the quantity of food on your plate isn't less because you are last, competing to see who can finish first just in case there is an opportunity for a second serving, competing to see who will get the next new pair of sneakers because the money isn't sufficient for all seven to so you take turns, and so forth.  Yes, seven boys in a 3 bedroom apartment surviving off the income of a bartender, my dad's profession, leads to a great deal of competition, and that eventually leads to a battle to demonstrate that you know more than your siblings.

Imagine raising 7 boys pretty much all by yourself in a three-bedroom apartment.  Seven boys who despite your greatest efforts never stop competing for your attention and love, who are always competing to demonstrate that each is more RIGHT than the other.  With each of us only being about a year apart in age, we became competitive.  So, what does this have to do with always being right?  Well, the more competitive you become the more right you want to be and before you know it you are more focused on being right than doing right.  Yes, being right becomes blinding and your determination to be right can lead to alienating yourself from others, who would occasionally appreciate your acknowledging they are right.  It makes you defensive as others try to explain why you are wrong, blinding you to the opportunity to grow and learn from their experiences and knowledge.  

Age has a funny way of helping us expand our minds and begin to realize that so many of the times we thought we were right, we were actually wrong or no more right than the other person.  We believed we are right based on the knowledge we possessed at that point in our lives, but if that knowledge is flawed or based on a truth was not true, then we were wrong.  With age comes wisdom, the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. It is often associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.   If you take time to think about past decisions you have made, you may begin to note how often you thought you were right and were not.  You come to realize that it is not about being right all the time, but about recognizing when you are wrong and learning from that mistake.  Perhaps you will realize, as I have, that being right is not as important as developing relationships with those around you and learning to celebrate when they are right.  Appreciating the positions of others and recognizing that discourse about contradictory positions is not about who is more right, but about the opportunity to build relationships and learn from the experiences of others.  

Today, so many are debating about why they are right and the other person is wrong, that discourse has become illogical and divisive. The need to prove that one position is more right than the other has resulted in the inability to think beyond the constraints of our own knowledge.  We are too busy trying to be right, we can't even conceive the fact that we could be or are wrong.  Today, I realize that there on more occasions thank I would like to admit, what I thought was right in the past was wrong.  I look back and think how foolish I was and how I need to be very careful to not be so focused on being right, that I fail to see when I am wrong.  Today, I am more than willing to let others be right and to respect where they are in their journey rather than focusing on always being right because that just isn't right!  Just a little advice to go! 

Reflecting God's Grace

 A while back I decided to quit facebook because I felt it was doing more harm than good.  Today, I hear from so many with Facebook accounts about the hard feelings and decisiveness resulting from postings by friends, family members, and believers regarding their positions on social events and politics.  What may folks do not realize is that Facebook, like many other social platforms, collects data on all of us which is then shared with or sold to others who use it to manipulate each of us based on our positions regarding faith, politics, social events and much more.  

For people of faith, critical platforms such as abortion and pro-choice are used to generate specific messages on our respective Facebook pages to lead us from one site to another bolstering our beliefs and demonizing anyone who believes different.  In the end, we become polarized to the point where we fail to hear another person's perspective or worse yet, react to it with anger and disdain.  In the end, we are more divided along political lines and faith from other believers, friends and family than ever before.  

Most concerning is the reality that people of faith have aligned themselves with positions that contradict the biblical teachings and principles critical to living a faith based life.  As people of faith, we cannot align ourselves with those who preach hate, condemnation, vindictiveness, verbal abuse, and physical violence.  We should not be manipulated into forgetting that we are called to love our enemies, to forgive them, to share God's word with them and to lead them by living in accordance with the biblical principles which are a testimony to our faith in Christ.  Included in these are the two great commandments Christ gave us, love the lord thy God with all your heart, soul, and mind and love your neighbor as you love yourself.  If we adhere to these two commandments, then we should find a place in our hearts for those who are different as demonstrated by Christ on many occasions.  We can impact those around us by the grace we demonstrate towards them, a grace that will help us learn to be respectful towards each other.  Just a little advice to go!