what do you believe?

"Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life."

Proverbs 4:23

My whole life I’ve read quotes, heard sermons, and learned a lot of things about being a leader and/or leadership.

This one quote has dictated a lot about how I see leadership, 

"Crows flock together, but eagles soar alone".

I've always had this idea that there was one major leader, and the rest followers. 

Now, that's true to an extent, but I took it too far.

I believed that being alone was normal for leaders, because they were different and didn't fit in. 

And there is truth to that. 

Leaders are different, but not in a bad way. 

And they don't have to be alone, they should have a team surrounding them. 

Even Jesus had people surrounding Him.

But because I had diagnosed myself and pulled out the leader in myself, I had always just assumed I’d be alone a lot and that it was a part of my calling.

That I wouldn’t really fit in with anyone and that it was okay to be alone.

Until recently.

My school has been doing all night prayer, taking hour shifts and believing for miracles.

And through this season, we’ve all felt this intense processing. 

A deep cleansing it seems. 

Now I’m normally all up for intense processing because I love being healed and exposing things, but this purging... is painful, long lasting, and cutting deep.

But through this month that I've praying, I’ve been challenged on a lot of things I believe.

And one in particular is being a leader and how that looks for me.

The Lord began to show me that there are places in my life that I believed were leadership things, but are really lies I’ve believed that has given me excuses to areas in my life that need growth.

For instance, I didn’t feel the need to go out and be with friends, 

even if I was miserable, 

I would stay home and say, 

“I’m just a leader and leaders are alone a lot, it’s okay”.

In reality, I should’ve been out loving on people, enjoying who God had placed in my life. 

Now obviously you can’t always go out, sometimes you do stay home and do things that you have to do and that’s okay, too.

But learn to recognize the difference from a pretty quote or idea that sounds good and truth.

Not only that, but this issue is deeper than leadership; it’s in every area of life.

What areas are you believing that are truths, but are belief systems you’ve created that are really stunting your growth in doing things that truly matter?