Emotional stability & Patience

When we look at the life of Jesus and His ministry on the earth, there are many things we can learn from His life when it comes to leadership. Today I just want to focus on two areas that I have been studying and focusing on:

1. His emotional stability
2. His patience

Jesus had three years of active ministry on the earth and was on a mission to accomplish the greatest and most important thing in eternity. HIs job was to save the world and turn enough people into believers who were willing to lay down their lives even after He ascended into heaven.

The amazing thing is that Jesus accomplished all of this while remaining emotionally stable and patient with His disciples.

There were times when He did get frustrated with them regarding their lack of faith but he never blurted out things out of frustration. There was times when Jesus spoke sharply to both His disciples and the religious people of the day but there was never a time when Jesus had to regret what He said and never a time when He felt like He had to "take back" the words that He said or spoke to others (Mark 9:19).

We also see Him as a leader who was patient with His disciples. He continuously taught them, even when it seemed like they were not growing. When some of his disciples made emotional comments and commitments about never leaving HIm, He did not get carried away. When the same people who promised to never leave Him, said that they never knew Him, He did not give up on them. He was patient enough to meet with them after His resurrection.

As leaders we absolutely need to develop emotional stability in our lives. It is not just needed when we are in our office but in our houses as we lead our families. In the last few months I have seen leaders fail because they lacked emotional stability and have seen leaders succeed in difficult times and circumstances because of emotional stability.

Patience is another area that we need to develop in as leaders. As leaders, most of us like things to get done quickly and would like to see people around us move at a fast pace. This is of course needed in certain areas but when it comes to developing patience, it just doesnt work! As leaders we need to be more patient with the people that we are leading. We need to take the time to disciple them and coach them along the way.

What are your thoughts on these two areas? How have they affected or effected your life and leadership? Can you share any examples?

In the following posts I will talk about how we can develop emotional stability and patience.