{"id":4392,"date":"2011-05-16T01:33:04","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T01:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/?p=4392"},"modified":"2011-05-16T01:33:04","modified_gmt":"2011-05-16T01:33:04","slug":"leadership-lessons-from-my-grandmothers-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2011\/05\/16\/leadership-lessons-from-my-grandmothers-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership Lessons From My Grandmother’s Funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.myjewelrybox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/funeral.jpg?resize=536%2C358\" alt=\"\" width=\"536\" height=\"358\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>On Sunday, May 15th we laid to rest my 89-year-old grandmother Sallie Dodd otherwise known to her family as Maw-Maw<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 There are a multitude of things you can take from any person’s life but there is one that I want to focus on\u00c2\u00a0regarding this wonderful lady.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suffering from lupus and later cancer, Maw-Maw spent the last 15+ years of her life primarily bed-ridden and living in a nursing home.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 Though my dad and aunt may disagree, I never heard her once complain about her lot in life.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Maw-Maw mastered the ability to be content\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>and bloom where she was planted.\u00c2\u00a0 With the ability to look out of only one bedroom window\u00c2\u00a0for over a decade, she made a huge difference with what she had, where she was at.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I meet many leaders who\u00c2\u00a0never experience contentedness<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 They are not happy where they are at and are constantly looking for the next big opportunity.\u00c2\u00a0 In particular, I hear about many pastors who are hoping to get hired at a “better” church with “better” people than where they currently are.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish they would simply build a “better” church rather than look for new one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In addition to contentedness, my grandmother possessed a mental toughness that I have not seen in anyone else during my lifetime.<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 If you were to visit her during the past month, you would see an extremely fragile, 65-lb individual\u00c2\u00a0ravaged by cancer.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I never saw weakness.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather, I saw the toughest, strongest individual I ever met.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Leaders, especially pastors, this week things are going to get tough for some of you<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re going to think “I’m tired of\u00c2\u00a0banging my head against the wall.\u00c2\u00a0 These people are never going to learn.\u00c2\u00a0 Enough is enough!\u00c2\u00a0 Things are never going to change. I’m leaving.”\u00c2\u00a0 Some of you\u00c2\u00a0may even be\u00c2\u00a0feeling this way about your marriage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When these thoughts come to your mind, remember Sallie Dodd<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Stay mentally tough.\u00c2\u00a0 Be content and thankful.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0If you are doing the right things daily, you are already a\u00c2\u00a0success.\u00c2\u00a0 It just hasn’t\u00c2\u00a0manifested itself yet.\u00c2\u00a0 DON’T QUIT!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Things will improve.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>And if I may, one final personal\u00c2\u00a0thought – Maw-Maw, you ran a great race.\u00c2\u00a0 You were a faithful wife and an incredibly loving mother.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0You fought a great fight.\u00c2\u00a0 Enjoy an eternity with Jesus and without lupus or cancer.\u00c2\u00a0 Enjoyed being healed.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll see you soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>To make your voice heard as a leader, click <strong><a title=\"The Leadership Tribe\" href=\"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/the-leadership-tribe\/\">The Leadership\u00c2\u00a0Tribe<\/a> <\/strong>link.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>To automatically receive future posts on leadership, simply subscribe or click <a title=\"RSS Feed\" href=\"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/feed\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, May 15th we laid to rest my 89-year-old grandmother Sallie Dodd otherwise known to her family as Maw-Maw.\u00c2\u00a0 There are a multitude of things you can take from any person’s life but there is one that I want to focus on\u00c2\u00a0regarding this wonderful lady. Suffering from lupus and later cancer, Maw-Maw spent the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","iawp_total_views":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,18],"tags":[94,165,195,229,243,341,723],"class_list":["post-4392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-leadership","category-family-2","category-relationships","tag-christianity","tag-family","tag-god","tag-inspiration","tag-jesus","tag-parenting","tag-relationships"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}