Why Patience Is A Particularly Difficult Virtue For Leaders To Develop!

Running shoes are more comfortable than work boots. Getting our way, winning an argument, and keeping the machinery running at all cost is much easier than, gracefully waiting, speaking with seasoned words, and allowing a certain amount of failure to come about because of the flaws of ourselves and others. It is much easier to end a problem and have closure, with the desired results or not, than it is to suffer long and endure. Patience is only learned through the trials of “thorns and thistles”. Many leaders would rather run away than to weather the storm. One can conclude that unless a spiritual leader is willing to afford themselves discomfort, denial of self, and getting our agenda passed, they will never learn the virtuous quality of character known as patience.

The Positive And Negative Aspects Of Anger In Leadership!

On the surface, it seems that anger and leadership only mix in a dictatorial environment. While it is true that dictators, whether ministers or CEO’s, often have anger as a fault, being righteously indignant is a quality that all spiritual leaders need. A classic example of this would be when Jesus drove the money changers from the Temple with a whip. No level-headed person would overlook the fact that Jesus was angry. His anger was not sinful. It did not overrule His emotions where He lost control of His temperament. His righteous passion for the dignity of the Temple, including all of its functions, caused Him to conclusively end the deceitfulness of those who were in violation of God’s Law. Thus, He was angry at their sin. This anger led Him to serve His Heavenly Father in a constructive and holy way! Every leader of God’s people must have anger as a spoke in the wheel of their character.

Just as anger can help a man deal with a disturbing situation and keep him in the battle until the smoke clears, it can also hurt him; costing him everything. There are high stakes in this arena of anger. A hot-headed man, who is always boiling over, will not mature in character. Rather, he will regress and eventually lose the respect of those with whom God has placed into his care. Anger can behave much like a termite does in wood. On the inside, inch by inch, the core is being eaten up. After a while the signs show up on the outside. Sooner or later, the structural integrity of the building will collapse. So it is with the spiritual leader who fails to utilize anger in the right way.