by Debbie DeVigilio
Photo by Lucas van Oort on Unsplash
Join with me today in thinking about your leadership. While what you do is oh so important, we can’t keep giving to others out of an empty bucket. Ministry and nonprofit work is hard….people make demands on us that seem unrealistic, we are faced with the demands of a board, raising money AND we have a family life too.
I want to encourage you to stop for just a few minutes to think about yourself…and filling up your bucket.
You see, we are only able to keep giving for so long before our bucket is empty. If we never fill it up, it will eventually be empty. Once it is empty, we are not able to care for ourselves or do the work God has called us to do. You will be facing burn-out. Unfortunately, many of us never realize that our bucket is empty until there is a crisis – until we are sick or facing relationship issues or some other catastrophe. It is in those moments that we realize that we have nothing left to give.
How ironic is that? When we need to give the most, we are able to give the least.
We need to make taking care of ourselves emotionally and physically a priority (and yes, I am talking to myself here as well).
Below are some steps to taking care of yourself—to ensuring that your bucket stays full, and you are able to live out the mission God has for your life.
- Continue to deepen your relationship with Christ. As a leader, you cannot afford to let your relationship with Christ go. This means that you are spending time in his Word and communicating with him on a daily basis. Notice I did not say talking to him, communicating means you are both taking and listening to what he has to say to you.
- Take care of yourself. Eat well and exercise on a regular basis to keep your body in working order. Get enough sleep on a daily basis—a lack of sleep is not a medal that should be touted-God created our bodies to need rest, don’t deny it.
- Build strong relationships with friends and family. These people are important in your life, make them a priority by spending quality time with them. Don’t just give them the leftovers.
- Continue to develop your skills to manage the work God has given you. Prioritize time for learning and growing. This may mean attending conferences, reading books or using a coach to help you grow. God did not mean for you to figure everything out on your own.
As a ministry or nonprofit leader, it is important that you fill up your bucket and keep it filled because there will be days when you need to use every last drop that is in it. And, we never know when the next crisis is right around the corner. It is so much easier to fill it as we go then to be scraping bottom and trying to fix the damage that has been done.
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