Operate from Your Values

This world wants us to compromise our values. Culture wants us to choose finances over family. Performance over peace. Influence over impact. The world wants us to chase things that lead, long term, to dissatisfaction and exhaustion.

Unless we—especially as leaders—keep laser-focused on the values that will lead to life, we’re doomed to such a future. However, when we stay on the path that leads to life, focused on God-given values, we can experience longevity in leadership.

Your values are a road taking you to an eventual destination. If you have the wrong values, you’ll find yourself on the wrong road and headed for the wrong destination. Take the time to understand where you are and recognize where you want to be, then make it your goal to move toward that desired destination.

As you move forward according to your values, you’ll also be faced with decisions about how you spend your time and what’s most important to you. Your values will inform your priorities. It’s important to continually ask yourself this question: “Do I have my priorities out of order?”

Priorities are the things we set as authorities in our lives, and we have to be careful what they tell us to do. Bad priorities will exhaust us. They’ll set us up to lose things that truly matter in life. Good priorities bring peace to our lives. Even more than that, good priorities, when acted on, often lead us to the blessings God desires for us.

Proverbs is filled with lessons that doing what’s right, letting truth win out, and obeying God can lead to riches, long life, and influence. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (ESV). When we put the right things first, the other things come along.

But it will never be easy to get—and keep—your priorities in order. Life will always try to get them out of whack, so it’s important to take the opportunities you’re presented with to reexamine and adjust your priorities. This will help you transform your values into life-giving actions.

True values, God-given values, aren’t something you can just make up as you go along. Look to God and his leading. Work to understand what he has placed in your heart. You can trust that God will strengthen and encourage you as you move toward his calling.