"It is Well" - Follow Well

Good morning, Five Minute Families. We are in our “It is well” series. When we planned this series, we had no idea what would transpire in our country this week. Learning to ‘follow well’ seems even more important this week than it did last week. Let’s learn to follow well in our families so that we can take those skills and impact our communities and our country, for Christ. Do you remember playing the game ‘follow the leader’ as a child? Many of us failed miserably at the game. We got distracted. We didn’t like where the leader was leading. We listened to somebody else who wasn’t actually in charge. We didn’t hear the directions and then led everyone else behind us off the path. And on and on. When I was in a leadership role at our homeschool tutorial, a mom came to me and said, “Tell me what to do. I am not a good leader, but I am an excellent follower.” Having always led (or well, tried to lead) I was quite taken aback by her statement. But, her joy in being a good follower made me rethink following and leading. Learning to follow well is extremely important, especially when our society tells us that to be successful, we must lead well. As we mentioned last week, Jesus Christ is a servant leader. Serving includes following in certain measures. God tells us in Philippians that we need to follow well. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:3-8 Ephesians 5:21 reminds us to ‘submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.’ Following is not an inferior position to leading. We must choose to follow to strengthen our family and its functionality. Remember that follow