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NewsDay

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Leadership in the family

To understand what I am putting across to you on this subject, I think it is prudent that we look at the very beginning of the family and its assignment. You will realise that its assignment is leadership. The family is blessed to lead.

To understand what I am putting across to you on this subject, I think it is prudent that we look at the very beginning of the family and its assignment. You will realise that its assignment is leadership. The family is blessed to lead. And God said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This is found in Genesis 1:28.

Relationships: Kilton Moyo

The family influences your spirituality, your beliefs, your values, your character, your thoughts and your everything
The family influences your spirituality, your beliefs, your values, your character, your thoughts and your everything

The family here is called into action and into leadership and to do this the Lord blesses them. In a nutshell, God is in a covenant with the family. He empowers the family to carry its mandate and live supernaturally. To bless is to empower and to enable the family to produce extraordinary fruit. In other words, we can say the family is designed for impossible situations and God has anointed the family for such. God’s intention from the beginning was for the family to take leadership over the affairs of the earth. The primary calling and duty of the family is leadership. When the first family fell, it fell from its blessed position of leadership and once leadership was confused many things crept in. Did you know that in the absence of sound leadership, there is a lot of blame shifting, finger pointing, strife, rebellion, and so many other afflictions hurting the family now? I want us all to understand that the family was designed to lead and it is called to lead. I want us to understand that the family is a blessed, empowered and anointed institution still with the mandate to exercise dominion over the earth and not the other way round. Jesus came to restore the family to its original position of leadership and, therefore, we have no excuse in not leading accordingly now. In the coming days, I will share with you a few awesome family leadership scenarios so we can together learn. Today let us look at maybe two leadership points.

Leadership brings order in the family

The Lord sends Isaiah to the King of Israel, Hezekiah with a message to put his house in order because he would die. You probably know the whole story in Isaiah 38, but I want you to see how important leadership at home is to God. He surely does not want this king to die and leave the family in disarray like most of us do. The call is for leadership. The invitation is for the king to lead at home too. Many families experience a lot of disorders because there is no active leadership. Most of us as leaders at home are just passive. We want to put all our efforts out there so the world can cheer us, but fail dismally where it matters most. Your leadership quality is tested at home. First manage the family well and then you can claim your position in the market place. It is not the other way round. Hezekiah is excellent as king of Israel, but not so very orderly at home. The same can be said of David, excellent in war and as leader of Israel and yet so passive at home. This is the sickness of many of us in family leadership positions. How I pray we can be sober enough to understand God’s heart and order. Success starts at home. Work and invest in your family 200%. You do not build by doing the roof first. You start with the foundation. Our foundation for everything is the family. The reason why the world is so sick and walking on its head is because the family is sick too. I expect this generation to be wiser than it is.

Leadership is influence

There is no other place in this life more influential than a family. The family influences your whole being. We are what our families have made. The family influences your spirituality, your beliefs, your values, your character, your thoughts and your everything. Everything else builds on what the family has laid as a foundation. For the family to do this there has to be proper and well-structured leadership. Family influence is seen in our training up of children in the way they should go. I can assure you that this is a leadership call. The family needs leadership to be able to train. Now this training is profound. You are training each child in the way they should go. The training is child-based. Your children are different and their ways are different and it is the role of the family to help identify these ways and then train accordingly. If this is not leadership, then there is no leadership in the world. It is at family level that we should influence children positively so they can take their place anywhere in the world with dignity and confidence and pleasing to God, their Creator.

You see, beloved, the family is to lead. The family is to take leadership. There has got to be leadership in the family. The current family is suffering from passive leadership. We expect the world to lead, but the world has learnt leadership from a wrong source and it is upside down. Look around you today; you will see victims of passive and dead leadership in the family.

Follow us on all our media channels and call us or write to us. You can also read our book Marriage Fitness or any of our eight books. They are available online. At Fruitful Marriages we offer you very sound, practical, relevant and restoring coaching and counselling on marriage and relationships. We are available seven days a week. Invite us or attend our meetings.

Kilton Moyo is creator of Fruitful Marriages, a renewal and enrichment programme and is pastor, counsellor and author of Marriage Fitness. Call or whatsapp on +263 775 337 207, +263 772 610 103 or [email protected]