Unlocking Your Potential - Chapter 4 Key 3

Responsibility means responding to ability. A man begins to diminish the day he starts pushing his responsibility to someone else. That was the undoing of Adam. When God asked him why he disobeyed, he said ‘the woman you gave me’. King Saul also lost his throne because he could not accept being responsible for his failure.

And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. I Sam 15:15

Responsibility is your duty, it is your role. It is what you are answerable to. Don’t dodge responsibility because when you dodge your responsibility, you become a liability. Accepting responsibility makes the difference between failure and success; between pain and gain; between profit and loss; between poverty and prosperity.

Don’t allow people to play on your emotions to the extent that they will push their responsibility to you; all in the name of helping them. There are things you must respond to. If you leave what you ought to do undone, it will undo you. Diligence is rewarded by heaven; so, be diligent.

He becometh poor that dealeth wit a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

Prov 10:4

A man who is not diligent will experience decay. Parents should be responsible. Take care of your children to the best of your ability; knowing full well that you will give an account of how you train them.

Define your responsibility because responsibility is dynamic; not static. Responsibility depends on age, position, occupation, mission and situation. These factors are great determinants of responsibility. It is a shame if a lady cannot prepare omelets. Let your male children be responsible to duties so that they will bless you when they grow up.

At every point in life, know what you are required to do and live up to it. Jesus showed responsibility even at the point of death on the cross. He planned for His mother; He handed over His mother to someone to take care… that is responsibility.

When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he said unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then said he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

John 19:26-27

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Every time you are faced with challenges, the fighter in you wakes up. It then means you work better under pressure, therefore you need not give in to desperation whenever you face contrary situations. Don’t think you have a problem because you assume what you have is too little. The man with one talent also thought the same way. What you have is a challenge; not a problem. Once you call it a problem, the natural thing for you to do is to hide like the man with one talent hid his talent.

If I have one while you have two; if I work harder than you, I will get two, not one. Success is the answer for your enemy. Prove your enemies wrong by succeeding in a hostile environment; accept challenges.

REFLECTION

Many things we claim are in the hands of God are actually in our hands.