Leading By Example!

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first 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. Matthew 20: 26-28

Remember the childhood game of following the leader? I am sure you all do but I was doing a study this week on how as moms we can run ourselves completely dry to the point of looking at our loving family and wondering just where did all that love go?

As moms, it is so easy from the moment that our precious babies are laid in our arms to sacrifice anything for that child. It even follows suit with our husbands; we would love and care for them unconditionally even trading places with them if one of us had to die. We would do it without hesitation and without question.

So where do moms find the time to refill, to recharge our batteries or to get back some of our deposits we have been making into everyone else’s love banks when we are receiving overdrawn notices on our banks?

Moms naturally possess the servant’s heart that Jesus did while he was here as a man on Earth. But Jesus also understood the needs for a perfect balance to all those people pressing Him for healing or just being in His presence.

You guessed it, He removed Himself from those needy people that were always all around Him and went to a hilltop, a home of a family, or even a boat at sea. He recharged during those times, by prayer and immersing Himself in His Father’s words. Often spending all night in prayer and conversation with His Father.

This is how Jesus remained balanced and able to fully give of Himself the very next day. Full of love and compassion, we as moms find ourselves depleted of by the very next morning with that first request of our time.

We need to spend time in prayer, study, and immersing ourselves in God’s word, His diary! This is how we can wake with a completely different attitude than the one we went to bed with.

In the work place, a good manager will not just ask his employees to do something new; he will model that behavior or show them how. They don’t just expect you to know it.

So we are moms need to be wary of the types of behaviors are children are watching us model both the good and bad. Children will follow parents by what they see them do more than what they are told to do.

Do you ever find yourselves repeating the things you mom said, or even doing things your mom did? See how the pattern develops both good and bad?

Moms are constant givers and we will often put our needs last above all the needs of people in our family. We need to maintain a balance otherwise we can feel taken advantage of, and lose our perspective.

Here's another great tip, when people ask to help, LET THEM! I know if you are like me, we tell others that it's OK, we've got it, go ahead and relax or perhaps we just feel guilty and feel it's our job. Well let that go and when your kids, husband, or even guests offer to do anything, smile and take them up on their offer to help. This is another reason we run too short on our energy.

As most of us are beginning or have already started the school year, this is where moms will experience the most burn out. Between the start of our days and the end, we will be tasked to do more than ever before. At the end of the night, we will be lucky if we can lay our heads on our pillows without one more request being made.

I encourage you to make this a priority each morning to rise just a little bit early and spend 30 minutes with God. After all, it will be just the boost we need to get our days going on a positive note.