Teachers as leaders... IWU devotional

Maxwell (2007) says that “Leaders act from a deep sense of responsibility”. Discuss the idea that “teachers act from a deep sense of responsibility”. It is ironic that this is the topic today... having just left church where the sermon was about finding our own "Target". What is our (individual) target in life? Finding our spiritual gifts will help us to reach the target that God has intended for us. We read through Romans 12 and 1Corinthians 12. Basically, the sermon was to find our own spriritual gift and then use it to glorify God. One thing that I found interesting was the distinction the apostle Paul made in Romans 12:7-8 (NLT) "If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. (8) If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for sowing kindness to others, do it gladly." A point that Pastor Scott Greene made today was that Paul used the name of the gift in the action we are to do -- all except one: to lead. Paul made the distinction for leaders to "take the responsibility seriously". As leaders in our school we are called to not only be teachers of children, (in which a tremendous amount of responsibility has been placed upon us for), but also to responsibly lead others in our building. Yes, I agree with the statement that teachers act from a deep sense of responsibility -- and most of us take that responsibility seriously... but also I think there's so much more that teachers feel than just a responsibility to teach. I go back to the sermon today... a spiritual gift is a supernatural gift from God that was woven into us at birth. God has given us (teachers) a predisposition to teach, most of us (if we have found our target) have a passion for our students and our profession that goes beyond just the sense of responsibility we feel... it's a calling. (Thank-you Scott Greene for a wonderful sermon today... I hope I hit the "target" in recapping your message.) Shannon