Leaders look ahead to next month, next year, to three and five year plans, to the next decade or even the next generation and beyond. They tend not to be paralyzed by the “now” decisions because they understand how “now” decisions fit into the future. Read the story of Abraham in Genesis 12-25.

In Genesis chapter 12 when God told Abraham “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great…and peoples on the earth will be blessed through you” Abraham caught a vision and a hope for fathering a great nation; a vision for becoming a leader that would have an impact on his generation and those to follow him.

Throughout history, when delegating leadership responsibility, God has looked for individuals with specific character traits rather than certain skills or physical qualifications. Read Genesis 6:5-7:1.

Humankind had grown so evil that God pledged to destroy it and all living things on earth (6:7). But the Lord’s pronouncement of judgment did not come without hope; God chose Noah, a righteous man, a man whose everyday actions indicated that he lived out his belief in God, to take the lead to save a remnant.

True leaders learn from their failure. Adam and Eve were a perfect compliment for each other and were co-leaders over creation. Eve was a leader who learned from her failure. Read Genesis 4:1-5:5.

Eve lived in a world that was free of pain, heartache and sin. Her choice to follow Satan rather than God brought devastating consequences to earth that we still suffer with today. Eve exchanged her life without pain for a hostile world with a brutal environment and even became the first mother to endure the heartache of a murdered child. Yet Eve demonstrated an ability to recover from failure and move forward.

God delegated responsibility for a task and the authority to complete the task to man. Read Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:18-20.

When God asked man to do a job, He gave him all the authority needed to complete the assignment. Man was not completely tested nor trained when God assigned him dominion over His creation. God allowed man to make decisions that He did not overrule. Could God have done it better? Yes! Was God still in charge even though man was making some independent decisions? Yes! Was there a chance that man would somehow fumble the assignment? Yes, in fact that is exactly what happened.