Being Teachable

My parents love ministry. While I was in high school, evenings were spent listening to them talk for hours about how church "should" be done. Or their latest learnings from books on ministry. Or what we need to be paying attention to in order to truly reach people. I grew to wish I didn't have to hear another thing about ministry... after all, I wasn't planning on going into it vocationally. But God works in amazing ways, and I now look back on those conversations with great appreciation. Last May, as my dad drove me and Nolan to the Baltimore Airport at 4 am, I found myself in another one of those conversations. This time, it was my dad reminding me of how essential it is as a ministry leader to remain teachable. I was sleepy, so I didn't put too much thought into the subject. But lately, his words have played through my mind with sparkling clarity.

Things have been going well lately in our Children's Ministry, and it would be so easy to just sit back and enjoy the goodness of it. To become confident in my own abilities and embrace the mentality that I have arrived. But the reality is that while an element of smoothness has been achieved on Sunday mornings, I still have so much more to learn. Being teachable means looking for ways to grow, areas to improve, and new ideas to implement.

Being teachable doesn't happen without looking inwardly. My job can't be soley about taking care of the needs of others. I need to carefully evaluate my own skills and take time for personal leadership development. So today, in an effort to keep growing, I took some time to myself. A few months ago I purchased the book, "Lead the Way God Made You" by Larry Shallenberger. Since then, I've carried it in my laptop bag every day, but haven't made the time to get past page 4. Today, I dove in at a coffee shop. Already, it's proving to be a worthwhile, educational and profitable read. And after a delicious time of reading and eating, I met with our Senior Pastor's wife for our weekly Bible study. As I drove home, I felt refreshed. Today was about me--about growing and learning--and I loved it. Imaging how much more God could use me if I took more days like this to let Him reveal Himself to me, teach me and challenge me. I love it when my dad is right.

So how about you? What do you do to make sure you keep growing? To keep being teachable, whether it's in your ministry, your parenting, your work?