The guys on our Family First team met for the first time last week to dive into the All Pro Dad men’s study. We grabbed lunch and gathered to walk through the first session, titled Fatherhood Fundamentals. Even though we all work together, it proved to be a great time to get to find out more about one another. Also, we didn’t plan it this way, but the men in our group are all at different stages in their lives, from single men to fathers with kids who have graduated, and everything in between. This made for some great conversation, as everyone was able to contribute a unique perspective on love and leadership—our fatherhood fundamentals.
On that note, I asked Jonathan, who works in our marketing department and a proud father of an 8-week old baby girl, to share what he took away from our week 1 discussion. What stood out to him was his perception of what qualities make a great leader. Here’s what he had to say:
It never crossed my mind that love is a fundamental quality of a great leader. Before going through this first session, I would have described a leader with words like shrewd, savvy, and intelligent, but not loving. I picture a CEO, Army general, or a head coach—people who got to where they are by removing emotions from their decisions. But that’s not the loving leadership that God modeled for us in His Son, Jesus.
Jesus teaches us that, after loving God with all our being, the second most important commandment is for us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I was reminded, and convicted, during our group’s time together that my “neighbor” included my wife. She has been dealing with some post-partum depression and my love for her has not been patient or kind, more often than I’d like to admit. I apologized to her last night and we went through the week 1 discussion questions together. She was full of grace and forgiveness and was quick to remind me that Jesus is, too.
Being a brand new dad, I am grateful that the Lord is allowing me to go through this study at such a critical time in my life. I was blessed to hear the wisdom of the older fathers in our group and to see that though they are striving to be amazing fathers, they still received a healthy dose of grace from their wives, their kids, and the Lord.
It isn’t easy to be vulnerable and share our shortcomings, so thanks to Jonathan for opening up here. Thankfully, as Jonathan’s wife reminds us, we know that though we will make mistakes in loving and leading our families, God doesn’t hold those mistakes over our head. Rather, He instead reminds us of our identity—who we are in Him. We’ll look more at our identity in next week’s session.
For those of you who are also going through the study with us, what were some of your takeaways? Did you not connect love to leadership like Jonathan? Were there any questions that came up that your group didn’t know how to answer? Please leave your comments below. I am looking forward to reading your thoughts. We’re off to a great start!
If you haven’t started the Men’s Study but you’d like to, you can get a copy from either Lifeway.com or Amazon.com.