Coincidence?

I love it when a plan starts to really come together. I’ve been planning to do some serious management and leadership training with our team in the home and the school and have been reading my way round books by Stephen Covey, (The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People) and John Maxwell, (Developing the Leader Within You). The basic shape of the training has been kind of emerging over the last few days but needed resources to give it legs. I was made up yesterday when I managed to buy three John Maxwell DVDs and two Stephen Covey audio books in Kisumu for less that £10. They are just what I need.

It is always tempting to write off the various leadership/management gurus as clever people who are very good at mining the personal development market for all its worth – helping people to scratch their various aspirational/ego itches. In the case of the two writers I have mentioned I would have to say that this is not true. What they write and present are genuine servant leadership principles. Putting into practise what many people simply preach. Once again I find that resources are lining up with our growth and development needs. Very encouraging answers to prayer. Many people would write ‘answers to prayer’ off as coincidences -  When I stop praying the coincidences seem to stop happening.

Carrying on the biblical theme I had a real moment of revelation today which helped me, in a matter of minutes, to write a personal mission statement – something I have been mulling over for some time with varying degrees of frustration. Having made a start on my new resource collection I was inspired to write the following in my notebook:

“The key to our future success and longevity lies in bringing up a new generation of Kenyan leaders of Hope and Kindness. I will, therefore, invest my heart, time and resources into identifying them, equipping them and trusting them with the future of Hope and Kindness.”

Having a personal mission statement might sound a bit pompous or pretentious but I find it a really helpful tool for focusing my time and energy. This version might need a bit of tweaking but it felt like a real leap forward today. Thank you God for the gift of ‘coincidences’.