John C. Maxwell said that “Everything rises and falls with leadership,” so if our children are to have a strong future, we must raise strong leaders. In less than a week, the United States Supreme Court will hear the Perry Case to determine if the 2008 proposition voted in by the people of California to protect marriage is constitutional or not. We will all feel the ripple effects. Our children will live and raise their families in the wake of the decision.
Moms are raising kids in an atmosphere antagonistic to the family, and the same is true in much of the world. How can a mom raise her child with the urge to lead?
Leadership begins at home, takes root in the church, and bears fruit in the world. Moms today follow in the footsteps of mothers who release their once-babes to become leaders in their day.
Jochebed had precious little time to retrieve Moses and train him in a home that feared the true God, before she had to release him to the house of the Pharaoh. Even in the great family of Egypt, God was with him and steered his path to leadership.
Hannah’s time with Samuel was treasured before she willingly opened her hands to offer her only son back to the Lord. Still, she mothered him at chosen times and from a distance, adding to the firm foundation that would be his platform for leadership.
Elderly Elizabeth raised up her only son John to be a man of the wild, a grown son whose one purpose was to lead people to the Messiah. Ultimately, her son’s life would be an earthly sacrifice with a heavenly reward.
Mary knew from the beginning that her Son Jesus was not her own, but the very child of God. She nursed and nurtured him, raising him for purposes she could not conceive. God used a humble woman to raise the God-child who would lead captives free from death and into an eternity of restoration.
If mothers today are to raise children to be leaders, we must face the urge to lead.
Mothering with the urge to lead
- Resist the urge to rescue. Children learn to depend on God, understand their design, and manage conflict when mothers choose to let children encounter hardship.
- Feed the urge to pray. Every mother knows she will raise her child to leave her, but God will never leave them. The best gift we can give our children is a habit-heritage of calling on their Heavenly Father.
- Overcome the urge to interfere. Children will not lead if mothers solve all of their problems. If we step in to fix trouble and buffer our kids from life’s challenges, we keep them from developing a response to the need to lead.
- Nurture the urge to encourage. Mothers have atomic power to lift children to higher hopes and courageous confidence. The world will stifle the moral ambitions and godly initiatives of future leaders, so moms need to strengthen their hearts as they grow.
- Cultivate the urge to model. Children learn more from how we live than how we lecture. When children see parents impacting their world as servant-leaders in the home, and in the community, they will see their own potential to impact their world.
Everything does rise and fall on leadership, so let’s raise kids with the urge to lead.
- Election Day and empowering, enduring truths for moms - November 8, 2016
- Loving People: How Moms can Make Life a Lesson in Loving - October 11, 2016
- A Child’s Heart and the Hidden Treasure of Talking Back - September 13, 2016
