HOW CAN I BEGIN TO TEACH LEADERSHIP?

Recently in studying the teachings of Brigham Young, he spoke how the physical and the spiritual are connected— that Zion will have to be built from the ground up— starting with our homes first where each will have to learn how to work.

So began my quest again to help my children to grow. We have spent the last few years learning how to work together on projects, through cold or hot temperatures, and to do real, hard work— such as taking on the painting of the exterior of a house, shoveling truckload after truckload of manure for gardens, or making a family website from scratch. It is not always fun at the moment, but every project so far we have done has been rewarding as we work as a team.

HOWEVER…

One area in my family that I noticed is —I have a few children who can not lead. They are great followers and can be counted on, but only after they have been given detailed instructions. I learned I do not have any leaders who can see the vision and manage people. To help my family learn this critical skill we decided to step things up and have each family member rotate as a ‘project manager’. Each family member will be given a project to oversee from start to finish. They will have to figure out supplies and then purchase them, divide the tasks up, and give the instructions to the others making sure things are being done correctly.

FIRST PROJECT

Sera was first and was put in charge of overseeing that 3 new gates for our property are made. She came up with a sketch of what she wanted using some old wood she found, delegated jobs out, went shopping for supplies, and successfully (minus a few off measurements) oversaw a now completed gate. This was a lot of fun to participate in even though it was a bit bumpy at first… but after 4 nights of working together in the evening—we did it! Now we just need to stain it and complete 2 more!

Taking Brigham Young’s teaching and learning how to apply it in my home turned out to be so rewarding. By prayerfully looking for ways to apply his council where we could grow as a family came the blessings of increased discipline, obedience, integrity, mindfulness, and truly listening and working together as a family. Hard work is a lost detail in our modern culture but I have seen that work can BLESS our family in immeasurable ways I would have not thought of. Hard work and leadership can heal families!