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Proverbs 31 as a professional woman – Part 13

Embodying and manifesting godly wisdom in the workplace
Yolanda Kalenga
Dear loyal readers, I trust that you’re blessed and highly favoured.

Last week (part 12), we started looking at success principle 6 which says that Proverbs 31 as a professional woman “adopts servant leadership”.

This week, I’m going to briefly look into more examples of servant leaders in the Bible.

Moses served a group of difficult people in order to fulfil God’s promise to lead the Israelites to the promised land (Exodus 3:4-10). His story reveals that servant leadership doesn’t mean that you need to do everything on your own. Additionally, it requires you to surrender to the will of God so that His success and victory will be expressed through your obedience (Exodus 18:13-26). Notably, it also requires you to develop the talent under your care so that when you step away, your Joshua is empowered and equipped to lead (Numbers 27:18-20).

Even Jesus Christ, who came to earth as God in human form (John 14:9-11, Colossians 2:9, Philippians 2:6-7), gave up His divine privileges (Philippians 2:8) and didn’t do everything on His own. He had 12 disciples whom He trained and equipped to help Him with His earthly ministry and to continue the work when He went to Heaven. In Luke 8:1-3, special mention is made of three women – Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna, who provided for Jesus’s ministry “out of their own means."

Meaning that Jesus Christ understood the importance of teamwork, delegation of tasks, the impact of transformation and empowerment as part of the responsibilities of a servant leader towards those under Him.

Servant leadership is likely to attract opposition (see the stories of Jesus Christ, Nehemiah and Apostle Paul), but it thrives through love, humility, courage, prayer, Godly counsel, favour with God and with people, wisdom from God and obedience to God to help you make the right decisions (see the book of Esther, Ruth and Daniel).

Deborah understood the essence of servant leadership in the multiple roles of a wife, a prophet and a judge (Judges 4:4). I assume that this required a deep understanding and a recognition that different audiences required different types of leadership from her. Meaning that she had to navigate the multi-dynamic aspects of leading as a professional judge who goes to war versus leading as a prophet or perhaps as a mother even.

In the modern set-up, Proverbs 31 as a professional woman understands the importance of asking the Lord to help her lead herself so that she can be equipped to lead others in various dynamics and submit to the leading of others as well.

She knows that she might serve a dream team (like how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were to Daniel) or have a Judas Iscariot who might want to jeopardise a given project or assignment – but either way, she continues to trust the Lord to work it all out (Romans 8:28).

David was the Lord’s anointed, long before he had any formal title, yet the Lord trusted him to serve in various capacities because His favour was upon him. David is proof that, amongst other things, a servant leader certainly needs favour from God and with people in order to succeed and that your hidden leadership qualities are revealed in challenging situations.

Joseph, Jael, Joshua, Apostle Paul and a few more examples of servant leaders who served in challenging circumstances with strength, courage, love and humility exist in the Bible. It’s up to us to study them and see what we can learn and apply from them.

Shalom.



DISCLAIMER: ‘Proverbs 31 as a Professional Woman’ under the theme 'Embodying and Manifesting Godly Wisdom, Success Principles and Effortless Femininity in the Workplace' is not posited on trying to read the professional woman into Proverbs 31 because this will produce an absurd result. However, I have opted to take a principles-based approach that widens the scope to be applicable to any professional woman – regardless of her age or status.

*For more context about who I am and why I’m writing this column titled 'Spirit, Soul and Body', I encourage you to Google search my previous articles titled 'A New Season', 'Seeing God’s Glory Through My Tears' as well as 'Proverbs 31 as a Professional Woman' (the introduction as well as parts 1 to 12) – all published by the Namibian Sun newspaper. I welcome your comments, inputs, queries or concerns. Kindly address them to [email protected]

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-05

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Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 741.21/OZ UP +0.19% | Copper US$ 4.46/lb UP +1.09% | Zinc US$ 3 105.80/T UP 2.06% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 76.41/BBP UP +1.08% | Platinum US$ 995.32/OZ UP +1.50% Sport results: Premier League: Fulham 2 vs 1 Brentford | Manchester United 1 vs 1 Chelsea | Tottenham Hotspur 4 vs 1 Aston Villa | Wolves 2 vs 2 Crystal Palace | Southampton 1 vs 0 Everton | Nottingham Forest 3 vs 0 West Ham | Liverpool 2 vs 1 Brighton | Ipswich Town 1 vs 1 Leicester City | Bournemouth 2 vs 1 Manchester City | Newcastle 1 vs 0 Arsenal Weather: Katima Mulilo: 22° | 38° Rundu: 22° | 36° Eenhana: 20° | 36° Oshakati: 21° | 35° Ruacana: 20° | 36° Tsumeb: 24° | 33° Otjiwarongo: 18° | 33° Omaruru: 19° | 35° Windhoek: 17° | 33° Gobabis: 16° | 35° Henties Bay: 13° | 19° Wind speed: 21km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 05:12, Low Tide: 23:16, High tide: 17:15 Swakopmund: 14° | 15° Wind speed: 18km/h, Wind direction: W, Low tide: 10:50, High tide: 05:10, Low Tide: 23:14, High tide: 17:13 Walvis Bay: 13° | 19° Wind speed: 21km/h, Wind direction: W, Low tide: 10:50, High tide: 05:09, Low Tide: 23:14, High tide: 17:12 Rehoboth: 15° | 35° Mariental: 14° | 35° Keetmanshoop: 13° | 33° Aranos: 14° | 36° Lüderitz: 15° | 29° Ariamsvlei: 10° | 30° Oranjemund: 15° | 31° Luanda: 25° | 26° Gaborone: 19° | 36° Lubumbashi: 17° | 32° Mbabane: 12° | 22° Maseru: 6° | 26° Antananarivo: 17° | 28° Lilongwe: 24° | 33° Maputo: 18° | 26° Windhoek: 17° | 33° Cape Town: 13° | 22° Durban: 15° | 20° Johannesburg: 16° | 29° Dar es Salaam: 25° | 31° Lusaka: 21° | 35° Harare: 19° | 31° Economic Indicators: Currency: GBP to NAD 22.6 | EUR to NAD 18.99 | CNY to NAD 2.45 | USD to NAD 17.41 | DZD to NAD 0.13 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.26 | EGP to NAD 0.35 | KES to NAD 0.13 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.63 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3 | RUB to NAD 0.18 | INR to NAD 0.21 | USD to DZD 132.44 | USD to AOA 909.05 | USD to BWP 13.33 | USD to EGP 49.07 | USD to KES 129.2 | USD to NGN 1664.36 | USD to ZAR 17.42 | USD to ZMW 26.95 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index Same 0 | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1876.57 Up +0.49% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 14300.12 Up +0.21% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 30650.04 Down -0.59% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI 9845.11 Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 741.21/OZ UP +0.19% | Copper US$ 4.46/lb UP +1.09% | Zinc US$ 3 105.80/T UP 2.06% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 76.41/BBP UP +1.08% | Platinum US$ 995.32/OZ UP +1.50%