Leadership Tips & Training Don't Whine, Be Thankful!

1 Thessalonians 5:18: Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's Will for you in Christ Jesus.

Every Thanksgiving, my family and extended family come together to celebrate what God has done in our lives over the past year.   Before we eat, we take time to go around the dinner table sharing our personal list of things for which we are thankful. This is always a very precious and sweet time. So, if it is so precious, why do we do it only one time each year?

I recently read an article written by Zig Ziglar entitled, "Getting to Do What You've Got to Do."   He starts his article with this question'   "When you woke up this morning, were your thoughts on what you've 'got to do' or what you 'get to do?' "   Boy!   What a question!   I honestly had to admit that I start out most mornings complaining to my family about all the things I have got to do that day.   It almost becomes a contest with my co-workers, as we try to top one another with our "got to" list each day.    By the time lunch rolls around, my back is humped over, my mind is rattled and I have a really bad attitude!   So, when my friend Linda calls to ask me to have lunch with her, I can only continue my whine, "No, I have just got too much to do!"

As leaders and as members, we can become so bogged down in the "got tos" of life that we forget to be thankful for what we get to do.   We can make a list of all the nine commitments that we "got to" keep, complain about all the exercise that we have "got to" do and the vegetables that we have "got to" eat!   We become so wrapped up in all the things we must do each day that we lose sight of why we are doing them!   While driving to work this past week, I read a sign that said, "A task without a dream becomes drudgery." When we lose sight of the dream or the goal, then the work that is pressing us toward the goal becomes drudgery. Drudgery leads to whining!   I have heard someone say that the joy is in the journey!   That is the attitude we need - look for the joys in the "got tos" of life and they become "get tos"!

A very dear and precious First Place leader, Joe Ann Winkler, recently emailed me and shared how she has experienced joy in her exercise journey. She has MS and is unable to walk great distances.   When she was in Houston for the Leadership Summit, she was pretty well bound to her wheelchair.   She left the Summit with a renewed commitment to exercise.   She told me that her goal was to be able to walk one mile.   A mile would be a monumental task, as just walking a block was very difficult, painful and tiring.   When she finally walked her mile, it took her about an hour.   In her latest update she told me she is now walking two miles.   She never whined, complained, or told me what she had to do.   Instead she wrote, "I am walking two miles a day now and that makes a perfect prayer time.   I am slow enough that I could pray for each person in the world and still have time for more!   I don't care how slow I am; as long as God is willing to walk through me, I will keep going.   I have lost 24 pounds."   Walking is a "get to" for Joe Ann.   She gets to walk each day and is thankful that God is with her, and that she has more time to pray for others.

This Thanksgiving let's be thankful for all the tasks that we get to do! As a leader, we get to evaluate Commitment Records, which means that we get to encourage our members. Leaders get to answer those seemingly endless questions about how to "count" this food and that, and in the process help the member to establish healthy eating habits.   We get to be the leader week after week even though we feel totally inadequate, because our members really don't care how much we know; but it is how much we care that matters to them! Now turn your members' "got tos" into "get tos" by reminding them that God has given them a "fearfully and wonderfully" made body to take care of for the purpose of bringing honor and glory to Him!

Nancy Taylor
Leadership Training Director



Nancy Taylor is the First Place Leadership Training Director and joined the First Place staff in 1997. Nancy teaches leadership principles to First Place Leaders throughout the country and at Houston's First Baptist Church where she coordinates all the First Place groups. Nancy also speaks at First Place workshops, rallies, retreats, and conferences, where she delights her audiences with humor and encourages them with boldness. She writes a monthly article, which includes helpful tips for leaders, for the First Place E-newsletter, and was a contributing writer to the Today is the First Day devotional book. Nancy is the resident First Place Bible Concordance because of her love for Scripture memory.