Leadership should not be confused with popularity or titles

It is widely believed that an individual with good leadership skills is someone who is loved by everyone, is always at the forefront, is able to get along with anyone at all times and is always surrounded by friends. Leadership is often thought of as the ability to make the people around an individual to act according to his or her wishes. For this reason, we push our children to learn how to win competitions, like it when they take the initiative in a conversation, help them to be equipped with shallow knowledge over a wide range of topics and attach great importance to having them experience the same things worldly people enjoy in attempts to enable them to socialize with others, rather than teach them the value of having a leader’s virtue, character, ideology, clear viewpoint and discernment.

We spend a lot of time, money and energy in order to maintain our popularity. Instead of having quiet time, thinking deeply, building up patience, planning for the future, fostering our academic ability, cultivating our personality, building our knowledge of the Word, receiving wisdom through the Word and prayer and exercising for the enhancement of our health, we invest too much of our time in making friends, chatting, laughing and having fun. Likewise, we feel as if we must be invited to something by someone no matter what because we value giving and receiving invitations to an event or a party due to our friendships. We also become troubled by the idea that perhaps we may not be invited the next time around because of our failure to respond to an invitation this time. There are lots of kids living in worry of whether or not they will be bullied. Essentially, the human instinct to enjoy popularity is hindering our children from becoming true leaders.

We want to make our children the objects of others’ envy. Because the only thing on our minds is popularity, we do not pay close attention another person getting hurt. There are not many parents who allow their children to think about the kind of image or lifestyle they should show others. They mistakenly believe that being good to their kids is to instill in them a sense of privilege, dress them in luxury brands and buy them expensive things. They are making their children people who find pleasure in boasting about their successes and achievements. Because many of our children are growing up in an atmosphere where praising others, encouraging others and sacrificing for them are not so important, the reality is that there are plenty of celebrities, but few leaders.