• Follow—every good or bad leader in the Bible is determined first by their obedience to God; a child’s obedience to his parents is the beginning point of his obedience to God. Begin teaching leadership by teaching them to obey.
• A leader serves (Philippians 2:1–11)—look for small ways to teach service; find ways to serve siblings, parents, friends, those younger and older, church members, and neighbors. Teach children to find and fill the needs of others.
• Trust God—the path to leadership always involves many steps of trusting God; teaching children to trust deals with topics of fairness, fear, and contentment with
  circumstances.
• Use your strength to help those who are weak—a proud person uses their power
  to bully those who are weak, but a leader is trusted to use their power/strength to help others.
• Do your own work—parents want their children to do well in school, please every teacher, and thrive in every sport and job; parents need to their children do their homework, work through difficulties with teachers, lose a few games and win a few games. Despite what their grandparents may say, children have weaknesses and will fail on occasion. Don’t protect children from every hard time; leadership is learned from mistakes and failures.

Closing Thoughts

Begin with the end in mind. What type of child are you training? Take a few moments to list what you are hoping your child will become after they leave your home, then list what character traits needs to be molded and what talents needs to be taught. Now some of those selfish actions and attitudes are no longer cute but rather a leadership training opportunity.