This is the last exerpt of Chuck Swindoll's insight on leadership from Nehemiah taken from chapter 10:
There are some very simple—but life-changing—principles that I glean from these verses in Nehemiah 10. The first is that serious thought precedes any significant change. Thinking is hard work. Don’t kid yourself—coming up with a good plan is usually far more difficult than carrying it out. Leaders who don’t plan carefully and shoot from the hip miss the target—and they wound others while firing!
[I wished I read this last Sunday for Father’s Day exhortations] Wives want to have husbands who think through their philosophy on the home and the family. Few things are more frustrating than trying to please a man who hasn’t declared what he wants. Here are some questions we men should think through:
- What are the goals of our home?
- What is the best way to inculcate our Christian convictions?
- Where shall we live? Why?
- How should we try to reach our neighbors and friends for Christ?
- Why do we want children?
- What can we do to help each child become confident and fulfilled?
- Which methods of discipline shall we use?
- What do we want to accomplish on our vacations?
- How involved should we be in the church? In civic affairs? In athletics?
- What are our convictions regarding music?
- How shall we cultivate a close relationship as husband and wife?
- What guidelines on teenage dating will we follow?
Men, that kind of thinking is hard work! But what a difference it would make in your leadership in your home if you’d think through such issues.
You never change areas of your life that have not been given serious thought. We need to schedule some quiet times in our lives, times for thinking and reflection.
When you see a person who has changed from what he was a year ago and you ask him, “Hey, how did that come about?” he will never say, “Oh, it just happened. It’s amazing; it surprised even me! I didn’t plan for it to happen, I just changed.” Instead, he will tell you, “I’m glad you asked,” and he’ll go on to describe what God did—one, two, three, four. Change comes on the heels of deep, honest thinking about our lives.
Second, written plans confirm right priorities. Lets consider the matter of documenting our priorities. As a minister I marry as many as forty couples a year. This means a lot of new homes are established. It would be easy for me to just stand with them, say a few religious cliches, pronounce them husband and wife, and walk away whistling “Here Comes the Bride.” But I have determined not to do that.
Before I will marry any couple, I require premarital counseling sessions with them. Among other things, I ask them to begin formulating their priorities as a couple. I ask them to write them down, to document their priorities, which later I read during their ceremony and occasionally weave into the wording of their vows. I then ask them to listen to a tape recording of their ceremony every year when their anniversary rolls around. Hopefully, this annual exercise will reinforce some specifics that will help each couple determine if they are still on target. The same procedure could be used in getting a college education, in establishing a business, or in undertaking any large project. Written priorities don’t get vague or fuzzy.
Do you really want to maintain the right priorities? Write them down! I suggest you begin to keep a journal. You may have some ideas floating around in your head, but they need to be nailed down. I learned years ago that thoughts disentangle themselves when spoken or put in ink. Your thoughts are good, but they are entangled because they haven’t been thought through and written down. Your being able to put first things first will never happen until some vital things are written out, word for word.
Third, a loss of distinction and conformity to the world go hand in hand. In Nehemiah 10:29 [they wrote down] a general promise to obey what God had declared. In Nehemiah 10:30, the people specifically said that they would obey Him in their homes. Next, the signers promised to conduct business in an obedient-to-God manner in Nehemiah 10:31.
Do you want to know today whether you have really conformed to this world or not? Check out your distinction. I don’t mean you should check out your religious lifestyle. I mean, check on your authenticity compared to New Testament Christianity. Look at your life, your home, your work, your worship, and then ask yourself, “Am I really distinct? Could a person read the real me and see God’s message on display?”
The leaders who have meant the most to me in my life are those who are authentic people. They are men and women who have thought before they acted, who have put first things first, and who have maintained their distinctiveness as Christian ladies and gentlemen. I thank God on every remembrance of them.
Think. Then do the things that need to be done in the order of their importance. People gravitate to leaders who live by that philosophy. I did, and I’ll never be the same because of it.
Of the three leadership principles in chapter 10, which one resonates the most for you and why? (Once again, this is just an exerpt, for the full treatment, read "Hand Me Another Brick")
A loss of distinction and conformity to the world go hand in hand…Authenticity is so rare. Few people act the same way around different groupie in their life and are the same person with the doors open and closed. Satan makes the world appealing to distract us from what will truly fulfill us. Satan doesn’t want what is best for us, but God does and He says that we are called to be different (regardless of how discouraging and how lonesome it can feel)
From brother Don
I think that the leadership principle that resonates with me most is the third one. The third principle states that a loss of distinction and conformity to the world go hand in hand. This immediately makes me think back to the distinction I saw in someone that was instrumental in my own conversion years ago. Around the time that my oldest daughter was still in her mother’s womb, just before I became a believer, I started working for a man that owned a glass company named Art- a self-professed born again believer. It was a very dark time in my life, and I was in the depths, (or at least one of them), of my addiction. Of course, with the anticipation of the arrival of my first born child, I was in a state of constant desperation, and quite open to ideas I had quite frankly scoffed at before. This being said, and despite everything else, the thing that intrigued me the most about Art, which was something I had never seen before in that line of work, was that he never cursed. Yes, he would speak to me about Jesus, and briefly explained the gospel a few times, but none of that impressed upon me the authenticity of his convictions as the fact that he never swore! Seems a small thing, but it made a huge impact on me- so much so that I remember it to this day. So, because of this, as a believer and a witness to the power of Christ in my own life, this particular principle has always held a high priority to me. That’s not to say that I’ve lived it out perfectly, or even well enough for that matter, but it is something that I strive for in my own walk with God. I feel that it is vital to live distinctly enough from the world that people would notice something is different about us. The other day, a coworker pointed out that he noticed I don’t swear, and it took me back to the days I first worked with Art- nearly 13 years ago.
I pray that we would live more distinctly as we’re conformed more into the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
The third principle that Swindoll writes about is “the loss of distinction and conformity to the world go hand-in-hand.”
That sounds like counter-cultural living for the sake of the Gospel.
I know of a pastor who only had one kid but runs a 5 bedroom house like a community center with open doors.
One of my good friends left a 6-figure engineering job and took his wife and kids to minister the Gospel to the Amos-Tibetan people. His tithe is more than his mortgage.
They haven’t lost their distinctiveness, nor conformed to the culture. I pray that me and my family won’t, either.
The lesson that resonates with me most is the first point: serious thought precedes any significant change. Chuck went on and asked the difficult questions to all the men, as head of the household and the one Jesus anointed to be in charge, how should I think and plan not only my future of the future of my wife and my children. Serious thinking is a matter that needs to be worked on much more for me and I completely agree with the examples Chuck gave out, it’s that changes don’t just happen overnight and they are to be reflected upon and worked at constantly.
Exactly like Kevin, before I even read his response, when I read “your thoughts are good, but they are entangled because they haven’t been thought through and written down” it really hit home, because like my teammates in this Bible study, I found writing plans to confirm my priorities resonates with me the most. I became very disorganized and jumbled after high school leaving me feeling like I have no plan for life, even though I had great ideas in my head for what I could do. I pray each of us can begin implementing this in our life so we can grow! ☺️
The lesson that stuck out to me most was “written plans confirm priorities” because I tend to think a lot and have a jumble of thoughts. It definitely helps to know what I want through the aspects of serving with God or through the growing in my relationship with Him personally. It would help in keeping me focus and be reminded since the world can often distract me from God and spending that time with Him. I pray to write down what I want along with God and to apply it to my life overtime.