Homeschool Inspiration: Leadership 101

One of the most important lessons that I try to teach our kids on this homeschooling journey is how to become Godly leaders. We have taken the eagle as our homeschool mascot and Isaiah 40:31 is the scripture that we base our school on. I believe that leadership skills could be one of the most important subjects that I will ever teach. Why? I believe that being a leader can take you as far as you want to go in life, and it can also save you from following the wrong crowds. Being a leader means that you know who you are, and you don’t need a set of worldly standards or people to define you. A leader is one who can follow their life’s path even if it is not popular and not care about the opinions of others. A true leader can accept the assignment that God gives them and carries it through, no matter what. Even if it means that your assignment may not be as “important” by society’s standards. Regardless, you can still hold your head up, knowing that there isn’t anyone in the world that could be a better you than you! A leader isn’t a person that gets others to follow them, but goes through life not caring if anyone else is watching. As long as you are giving your purpose all that you have, it always produces results, and attracts others along the way.  The best definition of being a leader that I have read, comes from John Holt’s book, Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling (that I have read more times that I care to share).

“Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. “Leadership qualities” are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders.” 
― John Holt, Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling

So, what’s so special about the eagle? The following characteristics give you an amazing look into why an eagle is the epitome of a leader.