Are you fair when leading your family? (83-4)
First Timothy 3:4-5 has this to say about leaders: “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect, (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)” Read 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-25 and 1Timothy 3.
Eli was a successful priest and judge in Israel, yet he failed to discipline his own sons. As a result, they grew increasingly rebellious and contemptuous concerning the things of God. Eli’s failure in this area led not only to a loss of credibility, but ultimately to his own downfall.
It is especially hard to be objective in your leadership role and to strictly apply Biblical leadership principles when family is in the chain of command. According to 1 Timothy 3, before stepping into a leadership role ourselves, or elevating others to leadership positions, we need to match them to a God established criteria and do some testing to see how well we or others measure up to the qualifications God has for leaders.
A common mistake of leaders is to omit the testing and evaluating steps when it comes to their family. There is a natural tendency to sacrifice the learning process that every leader must go through when we have a close relationship. It may seem like we are doing those we love a favor to keep them from struggling with the elements of the workplace that we had to grind out or maybe there is an assumption that since the child grew up around our work they will automatically know how to perform when the job is theirs. If, however, any step God established is omitted from the leadership development process, the chance to damage both the leader and the family member increases dramatically. Effective godly leaders strive to live by every principle God has established in the leadership process.
Proverbs 16:11(tlb) “The Lord demands fairness in every business deal. He established this principle.”
