W37D2 - Change
September 15, 2014
"Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility—young men without any physical defect, handsome,showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service" - Daniel 1:3-5.
In today's passage, we read about Daniel and his friends being transported from their homeland of Judah and brought to Babylon. Because they had much potential, they were chosen to be leaders and placed into a three-year development program. They had to learn a new language, new culture, and a new way of living with new 'foreign' names. After that, they were to enter a management training program that involved direct service to the king, the same king who had ransacked their homeland and killed family and friends. This is a good example of leaders not only having to lead and manage change, but also having to deal with and embrace change in their personal and leadership lives.
LEADERSHIP STEP: Today's Leadership Step is to read all of Daniel 1 with your journal close by. As you read, ask the Lord to show you the depth and pain of the transition Daniel endured. What price did Daniel pay for leadership? What other changes in addition to the ones mentioned above did he encounter? What was Daniel's main concern when he began his training? What was Daniel's attitude toward all this? What do you see that can help you with your own approach to change?
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