Leadership
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that, “Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
I wanted to share this quote with you this morning to encourage you to keep serving. Working in the service industry can be hard work, especially when faced with customers who want more rights instead of equal rights. Often you have to give up your right for peace sake and look like the one in the wrong. Whether right or wrong such individuals who are simply selfish in their doing will cause you to lose your job also. But even then, keep serving. Don’t allow their negative behaviour to make you bitter and become a deficit rather than an asset to society.
If you are a volunteer, you might find you are sometimes confronted with similar behaviour to those working in the service industry. I encourage you also to keep serving. Many are giving up on those who are in need. Those who are in need are sometimes afraid to reach out to others, seeking the help they need. This may be for fear of judgment or even rejection. Therefore, volunteers are valuable assets to our community.
Without being served by volunteers I may not have been confident enough to have written an article like this, speaking with you in this manner. Your service is needed and appreciated by many. Please don’t give up because of the obstacles in your path, placed there to see you fail at serving others.
Parents will understand best the frustration and discouragement that comes from ungrateful recipients of their service. This may be more evident, for some parents, during the teen years when their children are trying to understand and deal with the changes they face as they leave their childhood behind and face the adult they are becoming. Yet, in the context of serving, we cannot serve with the expectation of being appreciated for our service—we serve because it is our role to play in life. Receiving little or no appreciation is not a reason to relinquish parental responsibilities.
I would like to thank all leaders (great and small) for the work done for the benefit of others. I place a special emphasis on parents because by nature parents are servants. The greatest role in life is to serve and that is definitely a gift that is bestowed on parents. Each effective leader we encounter in life was first a child with parents or carers who invested time and poured love into developing his or her confidence to recognise and operate in their God-given purpose in life. Even the children who become parents are given a better start in life, as parents, based on the love poured into them as children and the time their parents/carers spent with them. It all adds to the formation of our characters.
I truly believe that the parents who effectively serve their children will be rewarded by the fruit that grows from the seed planted in their early years. Unfortunately, a child is not given the responsibility to ensure they have effective parents. It is the parents who are given the responsibility to care for those children and therefore should ensure their children have effective leadership in them as parents.
I believe that Dr. King’s quote at the beginning of this article was inspired by Luke 9:48, ‘Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.’ That was to settle an argument the disciples were having among themselves as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus took a little child and made him stand by him in order to teach them about servanthood.
We were all created to love. Our hearts have the capacity to keep on loving because of the fullness of life within us. Let us not be consumed by the negative circumstances we face on a daily basis but be empowered by the love within us to serve each other.
Our devotion to God should be first and foremost (see Deu 6:5). Next, we are called to serve in our leadership roles at home (see Eph 5:21 & 6:4). When we are connected to our Creator He guides our steps and directs our paths. That means we will have the wisdom to serve others. We also honour Him in our serving of others be it our partners (as husbands and wives) or as parents to our children. While serving in the role of a husband, wife or parent we are developing the necessary skills needed to serve in our churches, schools, communities, work places and social circles.
My encouragement to you therefore is not to relinquish your parental or marital responsibilities in favour of your volunteering roles or you will miss out on the greatest opportunity to serve well. Home is the best training ground for becoming effective servant-leaders, yet many of our leaders are struggling because they missed that opportunity. Parents are called to start children off on the way they should go, according to Proverbs 22:6. It is a privilege to be given the title of parent. Therefore, in accepting the role we have the opportunity to serve well at home while getting the experience and the understanding how to serve in other areas of our lives.
Regardless of the status at home, our calling is to serve those placed in our care. It is our mission field.
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58, NIV).
Thank you for reading. Keep serving!
Your sister in Christ,
Janice S Ramkissoon
18th February 2016
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1. We were all created to love.
2. Our hearts have the capacity to keep on loving because of the fullness of life within us.
3. It is our personal and daily responsibility to ensure we are not consumed by the negative circumstances we face on a daily basis but be empowered by the love within us to serve each other.
Keep serving!