This week’s lecture on divine-centered leadership from Brother Cox was eye-opening for me. I’m so inspired by Christ’s example of leadership—he taught through humbly serving others and in doing so, he motivated them to become servant leaders as well. When he washed his disciples’ feet, he taught, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14).  Christ’s every action embodied the principles of outlined in BYU’s publication on divine-centered leadership: his vision was perfectly aligned with His Father’s will, he challenged all unrighteousness, he was a perfect example of “the way, the truth, and the light”, he knew and loved each individual he lead, and he constantly served others.

            Brother Cox emphasized the importance of having pure, divine-centered motives. It’s easy to lose sight of the purpose behind your leadership, or to just tell people how to act and only focus on checking things off your list.  But leadership is more than just another embellishment on your resume.  A genuine leader’s highest priorities are the needs of each individual, no matter how trivial.  And you don’t even need a particular leadership title or position to act as a leader in your everyday life.  There are opportunities everywhere—the trick is learning to recognize them.  Sometimes it just means being a friend to someone. Everybody needs just a little boost, a little reassurance, or a little compassion at some time or another.  But it’s amazing what a little can do.

            This past year, I was faced with an unexpected challenge on my high school basketball team.  We’d been bombarded with young talent, which was great for the team, but it was difficult as a senior to constantly sit the bench.  However, when I turned my perspective around and tried to my put my teammates as a higher priority than myself, I realized that even off the court, I was able to make a significant impact.  I took on new roles on the team—cheering like crazy from the sidelines, keeping everyone motivated, and going all out in practice to make my teammates better.  It was definitely a struggle, but by doing this, I turned what I think would have been a mediocre season into an awesome learning experience.  

            For class on Monday, we participated in a “service project” to apply the concepts of divine-centered leadership.  Our assignment was to find people in the CougarEat and just get to know them.  We walked around for a few minutes, feeling out of place at first, but soon identified a girl sitting alone eating her lunch.  Ashley and I chatted with her for about 15 minutes and it was fulfilling to see how this girl opened up. After the first girl left for class, we found another girl to sit down with who was also sitting alone.  As the conversation went on, she also became more expressive and we lost track of time just talking to her.  It felt good to think that we might have brightened her day even just a little.  And besides, making a new friend can hardly be considered work.  Small service opportunities like these are everywhere, and if we learn to recognize and take advantage of them, they really can help us become more divine-centered leaders and more like our Savior.