18 Inches

18 inches.

That is the length of the journey from our heads to our hearts.  In Tommy Spaulding's latest release, The Heart-Led Leader.

Now that I am in this educational leadership program, the topic of leadership is one I see everywhere. I picked this up because I was intrigued by the tag "How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life".  I want to be a great leader and hoped to find some immediately applicable tips.

In the book, Spaulding uses stories of great leaders he's met to describe 18 qualities of a heart-led leader (one for each inch).

All in all, I found the book to be inspiring but a little bit fluffy.  It's certainly good reading for someone who hopes to be a better leader, or for already great leaders looking for some renewed motivation.

***I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.***

What I Learned in October & a Long-Overdue Reading Update

Another month has come and gone!

Today I am linking up with Emily P. Freeman's "What We Learned" series.

Here's some of what I've learned in October.

1. I can do anything for a month.

I just finished my first successful "Write 31 Days" challenge. I didn't write the most beautiful posts, but I set a goal and accomplished it.  I'm hoping this means I can translate it to the next 30 day challenge I've set for myself -- No SPEND November starts tomorrow!

2. My mom knows me well.

She introduced me to my new favorite game app -- Word Bubbles.  She told me I would love it....and I do :)

3. Fitbits can be great accountability tools.

In my September post I mentioned I need accountability in order to be successful, especially when it comes to healthy eating and fitness.  I got a Fitbit about 5 weeks ago and it's really helped me step it up in terms of exercise (pun totally intended).  My favorite feature are the friend challenges - I don't need to win them, but it helps to have encouragement and a little competition.  We're all in this together.

And for what I've read in the past two months:

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
A Million Little Ways: Uncovering the Art You Were Made to Live by Emily Freeman
Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
The Heart Led Leader by Tommy Spaulding

Clearly my reading has slowed a bit now that I am in this principal training program, but this still makes 80 books for the year.  

 

 

To Love the Truth Day 31: Truth For All the World

Today is the final day of this series - I can't believe I made it! October has flown by...though at times it seemed to drag on, especially the past week after I ran out of outlined posts.  I'm proud of myself for sticking with this.

For my last post I want to share an element of Truth I've experienced this month.  It's something I've known on an intellectual level and believed for years, but I've now come to understand it in new ways.

The Gospel is for everyone.  Truth is not just universal, it's personal for everyone in the world.  Truth transcends distance and culture and life circumstances.  It has power and the ability to transform all of us.

During this series visits to my blog have increased.  I hoped this would happen -- I mean, I did link up to several other blogs.  What I didn't expect, however, is that the vast majority of my new readers are some other countries.  To those of you who have joined me, thank you.  I hope my rambling has pointed you toward Him.

To Love the Truth Day 30: Sharing the Truth

I'm a witness, not the judge.

A motivational speaker recently visited the school division in which I work, and he repeated this line many times.  It wasn't in reference to the gospel of Truth, but it stuck with me because it fits so well.

For the last thirty days, I've been sharing the Truth not as the judge, but as a witness.  I've presented my experience.  I've told you what I've seen, what I've heard, and how it's changing me.  This is my testimony.

It's a story, not a sermon.
It's an example, not a manual.

This is my story of how the Truth has transformed my life, how I've learned to walk in Truth.

That is how we are to share the Truth with outsiders. Honestly, openly, not apologetically but not judgmentally either.  We are witnesses.  We are to speak as those with personal experience.  It's not head knowledge and an intellectual exercise anymore.  It's a deeply personal story of what's happened to me, and I will tell it softly but with confidence.

I'm His witness....

Thanks for reading my testimony.

To Love the Truth Day 29: Truth in Community

Today's strategy is one I know is important, but I must be honest and say this is a hard one for me to live out.  As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, I have a lot of anxiety surrounding church involvement.  It's hard for me to feel as if I fit in and I tend to keep my relationships with church friends at a surface level.

In order to learn to love the truth and walk in truth, we must surround ourselves with a community that will tell us the truth --a community that will challenge us to live out truth and remind us of truth as a means of comfort.

Daily Bible reading and a personal quiet time are helpful but not sufficient.  In fact, as my pastor pointed out on Sunday, the quiet time phenomenon is a new one.  For most of church history, Bible study has been a communal experience.  We need each other.

It's so important that the New Testament alone uses the word "together" about 100 times.

Do not give up meeting together...

Raise your voices together...

Strive together...

Work together for the truth...

And this, the example of the early church:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

This is why we are to do this thing together: so that others will see and hear the truth and be saved.

It's not just beneficial to unbelievers, however.  There is great value for those who are already saved.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. 

It's in community that we are able to speak the truth to each other.  When we heed those words and learn from them we will grow to become mature in Christ. We will not become deceived but will be confident that we know the truth....together.