 What's going on y'all welcome back to conversations with Carrie and I feel like I started every video like this Like I know how long it's been But child listen life has been life in okay. I should get that from a business partner life has been life in So, you know what it's just me Jesus and this weave child. We just gonna keep riding it out. Okay But seriously, I am here today to talk to you about leadership I wrote about this recently on my blog over on Carrie Lee calm So, please go visit that take a look. I'll put the link down below and let's be clear I'm not about to give you some LinkedIn version of like what leadership is now child We about to have some real conversation because y'all know how I do So let's talk about leadership. I think we're actually all called to be leaders but I've worked in retail and actually since my like mid 20s I've been working in the retail and leading others And I once I remember somebody say like a long time ago that Leadership is a version of adult babysitting and chat. Oh, I want to pass up. That's that's that's very very accurate Okay, because sometimes like listen, how do you how do you even do anything because why am I having to follow up on everything? But I think about the different type of leaders that that you know, many of you are as well as I've been in the past Sometimes we're leaders in our friend circle Sometimes we're leaders in the like a voluntary Capacity, so maybe at church or you know in the community service group or in a sports team Of course, I mentioned like being a related to work But like leadership shows up in a lot of different ways, you know There's so much to be in the leader and leader does have is like positive points Like it's nothing like like seeing somebody that you've been like training and developing and they grow and they flourish And they do such great things and they even surpass your talent or they go beyond you I love seeing that like that gets me height or I love seeing people just walking their fullest potential and You know just be like thriving and you're like, yes Like I'm in a position where I can you know promote or I've been in positions before also where I can like promote others And then it gives me joy to promote others And just let them shine let them be in the limelight like I love that that's such a big part of leadership But as we know that's not all of leadership and oftentimes when it comes to be in the leader you develop and you grow stronger in your leadership by encountering trials and Even saying that sometimes I'm like Lord not another one But yes trials allow you to develop perseverance and endurance and character the Bible talks about that And how important it is that without that you may not reach your fullest potential So if you're encountering leadership trials of any kind right now know that God is working in your life Like the Lord is doing something and I know oftentimes we want to like roll our eyes and be like oh But as we know as a leader we have to go high when they go low And we know Michelle Obama said it but I'm talking about high high like heavenly high Like Jesus Christ to hide on the throne interceding on my behalf high or I'm talking about You better be glad I know Jesus because if you hadn't met me a few years ago I would have probably unleashed on you kind of high like I'm talking about like just Rising above it all and that's what's required in true leadership. You have to move beyond your emotions You have to move beyond your anger. You have to move beyond your pride Set all that aside and think about okay. Well, what is what am I doing for the greater good? Y'all already know I'm gonna take it to the word, okay? I've been studying King David and I love King David like when I get to heaven I'm just gonna be like what you got to say as you know, I'm gonna be somewhere praising the Lord, but still Like if King David I could talk to him and have a full full conversation because if you think about Psalms and just So many parts of the Bible show his humanness and that he he was just you know He cried out to God when he struggled and he let us know his emotional state all of it So anyway, I love me some King David and I was actually reading in second Samuel Oh, no, sorry first Samuel chapter 30 and it's really about when David is Coming back to Ziklek and y'all know we've talked about me and how I pronounce things but I think I'm okay today I don't have any like specific names, but David was living in Ziklek This is when he was still in the wilderness. He's coming towards the end of his time I don't think he knew it was the end of his time to take over as the king of Israel Because King Saul had been hunting him to killing so he spent years in the wilderness And he had been given this area of land for you know for his team him and his warriors to Dwell until his time to take the throne and so they were actually going out They were about to have to fight the Philistines or no, excuse me They were going to fight with the Philistines and they're going to have to possibly fight their countrymen But you know basically Philistines was like we don't trust you David And he was like what have I done to make you not trust me? I mean other than kill Goliath You know so he's like cool. All right, but we just gonna go on home take me and my men my warriors We're gonna go on home, but when they get home Everything's gone like their wives their children their livestock all their like wealth is gone and the entire city was burned so Let's pause there for a moment to be like are you kidding me? Can you imagine being a leader during that day and age where like for one? He was already being hunted and you know, he knew that he was anointed king However, he wasn't even able to go become the king so he was somewhere hiding in the wilderness and he's got these bands of people who are like ruthless man who you know around here they're killing everybody left and right as it's necessary, you know to do whatever they need to do and He has to lead during that time as he's like, you know, they're all crying They're like, oh my gosh my children all my baby mama like all day, you know, just complete just emotional state These fools are trying to stone King David. You hear me. They're like, oh, yeah We they just completely turn against him and they're talking about stoning them and this is where David demonstrates True leadership. It says actually let me read it to you. Shall we so in again chapter 30 verse 6 It says moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him For all the people were embittered each one because of his sons and his daughters But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Oh Come on leadership. Come on. You better use wisdom and some humility because quietly Let me tell you let me just see how happy I got But let me tell you because when you're failing you're a leader you have to always choose the high road and You can't lower yourselves to the people who maybe are they're responding emotionally or they're lashing out at you But when you've been called to lead Then you you can't still to the level of everybody else because David could have been like, how dare you, you know He could have been like, I'm the king. I'm about to be the new king. How dare you speak of stoning me I kept y'all live my wisdom and my strategy has kept y'all live all this time. He but again, what would have been talking? His pride what have been talking his anger his frustration his distress That's what they were talking through So as we have to think about as being leaders, especially leaders of others We we have to go higher. We cannot lower ourselves to their standard I love that David strengthened himself in the Lord his God He inquired of the Lord and it says down in verse 8 David inquired of the Lord saying shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them and he God said to him pursue for you will surely overtake them and you will surely rescue all Like I love that he sought the Lord like Lord. Let me get permission from you first Shall I go and overtake them because y'all David was a warrior Let's not get a twist that he's been a warrior from his youth when he was out there Shepherding the sheep and the bear the lion came and he was like, yeah, I grabbed him by his beard like David is nobody's pump. It says in the first Samuel 30 again in chapter 30 I think it's verse 18 so David recovered all that the Malachites had taken and rescued his two wives But nothing of theirs was missing whether small or great sons or daughters spoil or anything That they had taken from for themselves David brought it all back like God is such a restore Here his men were ready to kill him and now he's like, okay instead of me trying to prove to you while I know what I'm doing and I'm a great king instead. Let me seek the Lord Lee Lord was like, yep boom gonna kill him I'm gonna give you the victory and then he gets everything back everything back now He also got his two wives and you know Just because it got Bible mentions it doesn't means a good thing So, you know, we gonna talk about that another day But he got everything back. I love this because you know, it was a trial moment It was a you know, he had been in the wilderness all this time so Constantly he was building his endurance and his character and it's moments like this where it's like had he not dealt with that That wilderness how he had he not dealt with that issue He might not have turned to the God at the time when he needed it most and had he maybe done something else like was like Oh, y'all thinking of stoning me and pulled a sword out and was ready to get the slicing and dicing Everything could have been ruined and he they never would have got their family back And they probably would a lot of them would have died. So I love that he used his experience He knew to seek the Lord There's a lot of times that we want to respond emotionally or we want to go with our gut response But your gut response is not always the best response if you're not listening to the Holy Spirit and we have a helper We have the Holy Spirit the comforter living inside of us to be able to direct us That was not present during the time So the fact that he was like in this in the state of complete emotional distress He was like, oh, I know where to go. I'm gonna know I'm gonna go to the stores who has my help Who who is my help who will direct me on what to do? Listen, I get it being a leader is not easy. Like you feel like the expectancy and sometimes you just want to be You won't be a little ratchet. You want to do some stuff, you know, you ain't got no business doing but I'm telling you when you spend time in your word Like it would just naturally pour out of you The word will pour out at a time where you're thinking dang the the old carry would have said something totally different or reacted Totally different to that situation But no when Lord is living inside of you because he's got it taken care of you don't have to worry You don't have to fret he had he saw you at this place. He saw this moment beforehand He saw you before you were even born or you wouldn't be informed or formed in your mom's womb Like the Lord has all these plans set up for you. So if you're spending time with him You're gonna learn his character and that's gonna come out of you first So it's gonna be very easy to go high when they go low So I say you are encouraged today, especially if you are a leader of others share this with somebody I hope that they or maybe you want one day you want to be leading others Know that this this Bible this word has everything that you need and I'm talking about everything every situation that you can imagine You've encountered it's in here some kind of way And I love King David if you have not studied him, please take the time to just dig into God's word and learn about King David There's so much he was just such a real and he wasn't perfect. That's what I love about him as well He was nobody's perfect. I think he was probably fine though I think David King David was fine But I want you to just just really enjoy this word and enjoy what the Lord has to share and I hope that you are encouraged I hope that you face different situations at work or you know your community service Whatever it may be that you can really serve as a leader and go high when they go low take care