My Chef Husband

I must admit that, when I watch him in the kitchen, I get all flustered as he does not prepare and cook things the way I would do it.

Acts 6:1-7

Reference: Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them. (Acts 6:3 NIV Bible)

Explore: The second date I ever went on with my now husband, I met him at his house and he cooked me dinner.  I recall that it was Apricot Chicken and quite delicious.

I remember leaving his house that evening thinking that if I were ever to marry that man I would be on an absolute winner. While I didn’t mind cooking, having a husband who prepared our meals would be awesome.

13 years later I can now report that I could count how many meals my husband has cooked me by using the fingers on only one hand!!! (And that includes the Apricot Chicken from our second date!!)

He is not the only one to blame for this. I must admit that, when I watch him in the kitchen, I get all flustered as he does not prepare and cook things the way I would do it.

In the end I find it’s just as easy for me to do the cooking as it’s quicker, cleaner and leads to less injuries!! I guess it goes to show that, although I’d love my meals prepared for me, I’m not willing to hand over the responsibility.

Application: When the believers in Jesus were establishing their community in the year after Jesus rose again, it was clear to see that there were some teething problems. It was a huge step for someone to move away from their established religion to become a disciple of Jesus, but thousands of people were doing so.

When a multitude of people gather together you find that you have different ideas, different skills, different needs and if you don’t navigate the waters carefully and wisely it can lead to disaster.

When the issue of some people being left out came to the Twelve leaders they realized that they needed more people to assist and direct. They wisely put faithful people into a new leadership role and handed over responsibility to them so that the rest of the ministry did not suffer.

It would have been easy for the Twelve to micromanage and control every single part of the ministry, however, that was going to hinder the mission of spreading the word about Jesus. Unlike me in the kitchen, they were willing to hand over the task and allow the new leaders to grow and develop in their own way.  And it must have worked, as we never hear of this issue again.

It is often hard to hand over responsibility of an area that we are precious about, however, when we are in leadership we quickly become aware of our limitations. If we take the lead from these Godly leaders then we are reminded of how important it is to be wise about the leaders we choose and also to let go of the leadership once they are in place.

Prayer: Lord, often as leaders we like to take control as that is what has brought us into a leadership role in the first place. Help us to see leadership abilities in other people, and be willing to hand over control, so that we can allow healthy growth. Amen.

What leadership skills do you have? Are you putting them into practice?

Acts, delegate, growth, leadership, wisdom