My mom had a thousand one-line sayings that have stuck with me over the years. One of them that I remember from about age 13 was, “You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends, but choose your friends carefully because you can’t pick your friend’s nose.” My mom had a memorable way of telling a 13-year-old that I had the ability to eliminate items from my person that were a problem or irritating but if my friend had a life issue, I would not be able to change them and it might influence me for life. The book of Proverbs says the same thing for adults, “A mirror reflects a man’s face but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses” Proverbs 27:19 (tlb). Wise leaders understand that positive or negative relationships will shape their leadership. Read 2 Chronicles 21.

Jehoshaphat is known as a godly king even with the weakness he displayed for unhealthy alliances. When he died his son Jehoram assumed the throne. Jehoram was one of the people directly affected by one of Jehoshaphat’s unhealthy alliances. Jehoram had an arranged marriage to Athaliah, King Ahab of Israel’s daughter. Ahab was one of the most evil kings ever to reign the Jewish people of the northern kingdom. Jehoram’s life shows the influence Athaliah had on his core values. Read more »

It is possible for a leader to have most areas of their leadership life squared away, be successful in virtually everything they touch and still have one area continually out of control. Wise leaders understand that even allowing one area to be out of control will influence their legacy. Read 2 Chronicles 17-20.

King Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king of Judah and reigned in Jerusalem for 25 years. For the most part Jehoshaphat was an outstanding godly leader. Second Chronicles tells us that Jehoshaphat sought the Lord in virtually all areas of his life, had great wealth and honor, became more and more powerful and even the arch enemy of Judah, the Philistines, brought Jehoshaphat gifts and were at peace with him. Read more »

Effective leaders understand the need for the constant restatement of goals and core values. Read 2 Chronicles 17.

King Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king of Judah and reigned in Jerusalem for 25 years. Jehoshaphat desired to be a leader that led a nation that honored the laws and moral code of the one true God not just in his palace but every part of the nation under his rule. In a day when the communication and transportation options were limited it would be difficult to see how a leader would quickly turn around not just people’s observance of an external set of laws but the internal value system they chose to live by. Read more »

“Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine, and lest you lay such stumbling-blocks before the blind, as may be the occasion of their ruin; lest you unsay with your lives what you say with your tongues; and be the greatest hinderers of the success of your own labors…He that means as he speaks, will surely do as he speaks.” These words written by Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor in an article entitled “The Banner of Truth Trust” should be on the wall of every leader. The Biblical virtue of integrity points to a consistency between what is inside and what is outside, between belief and behavior, our words and our ways, our attitudes and our actions, our values and our practice. Read 1 Chronicles 29:16-20. Read more »

Those closest to a leader have great influence as a leader’s character develops. Read 1 Kings 21:25-26.

Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel, the princess of Tyre, didn’t help his character. She zealously promoted the worship of Baal and imported an army of pagan priests in defiance of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Ahab complied with his wife’s demands and came to hate the prophets of Yahweh. Thus, “There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife.” Read more »