Welcome to the October 2nd edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
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The Story of My Week
One of the things I started doing over the past weeks is to share stories from my childhood with my kids.
It’s for two reasons.
First, it opens them to a world that used to exist. They visit this world through the questions they ask about how I lived in it.
Second, it helps them see that daddy was a boy who grew up and became a daddy. He was not born a daddy.
My stories are not super.
Stories like “I was the most brilliant student” or “I was the king of the hill” are not part of the repertoire.
Simple stories with people in them.
“Climbing the mountain at the back of my grandparents’ place”, “feeding our goats and chickens every morning before I left for school”, and “discovering that goats could eat paper after they ate the school book” are the kind of stories I share.
I used to ask to tell the stories.
Now, I am being asked to tell a story every night.
It’s interesting the things that fascinate a kid.
I’ll keep the stories going as long as they keep asking.
Things I Learnt
1-Handing Over to Who: In one of the social media groups I'm in, someone made a story about Bishop T.D Jakes's handover of the "Woman, Thou art Loosed" ministry to his daughter, Sarah Jakes Roberts.
Before you get all gung-ho about family nepotism, the daughter was not just handed the keys to the kingdom. She had been busy doing her own thing.
She runs a woman-focused ministry called "Woman Evolve". So, she didn't need "Woman, Thou art Loosed" to be busy.
The story that the person made about it was the transfer of the ministry as a family legacy to the next generation. It was kind of like "you succeed as a parent when what you are running can be carried on by your children".
It sounds all good except for one thing. It creates the narrative that everything we start as parents is something for our children to come into.
It would be nice but it's not necessary.
The success of our parenting should not be measured by whether our children come into what we are doing. It should be measured by whether we have equipped them to come into what they should be doing - even if it is not what we are doing.
Still on the topic of handover.
Sometimes God allows us to hand over what we are doing in a way different from what He would want due to our weaknesses.
For example, a leader who is naturally distrusting of outsiders may find that the only persons he/she can hand over the enterprise to are family members.
Why?
The possibility of backstabbing is reduced.
A leader who is overly concerned about how people judge his/her actions may find it easier to hand over to a non-family member even if a family member is more qualified.
Why?
He/she does not want to be accused of family nepotism.
And that is why I keep working on myself to have a big heart to take whatever comes my way as I grow in my leadership.
I don't want fear to keep me from trusting people that are not members of my family and who should be in my inner circle. And I don't want to be overly committed to outsiders that family members feel like they are on the outside looking in.
2-In These Challenging Times: Any business leader who succeeds in keeping his/her business afloat during these times deserves an award.
The priority is liquidity. Profitability can come after we succeed in getting cash to keep us alive.
I lead teams across two countries and the pressure is immense.
During the week, different cash needs kept popping up like Whac-A-Mole.
I stomp one and another shows up.
The new one is unrelated to the last one but carries a sense of importance.
The cash game I play every month is simple - start with salaries, next is monthly overheads, followed by taxes, not forgetting client payments, then cap it with contractors & vendors.
The problem comes when the guys at the back start making so much noise to try and convince me that they should be the ones in front.
Once I start doing that, I open myself to a new world of stress.
And that's why I occasionally take a meeting with involved parties so I can explain to them that their monies will come later.
Just not now.
It takes a bit of courage to look into people's faces and tell them you can't pay them now.
And still keep their trust.
This is what business leaders are having to do in these challenging times
Postscript
May you find the courage to always remain resolute to do the right thing. May your courage never fail when you need it most. Amen
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Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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