Where Leaders Are Born
- Tina Smith
- Mar 31
- 3 min read
๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ. ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ช๐ณ๐ญ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ฆ๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ, ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ข๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ.
There are moments when you look back and realize your life has been speaking long before you understood the language of it.
A few years ago, I opened an old elementary school book. On one of the pages, my heart was written in the simplest form. All I wanted to do was help people.
That little girl had only known life through the lens of a child. She could not have understood what was ahead. She did not know that she would face adversity that would take her breath away, moments that would make her want to walk away from it all, or the nights she would fall to her knees, crying out to Jesus.
That little girl is now me.
The same passion still lives within me, but it has been refined. It has been shaped through lived experience, through hardship, through lessons that could only be learned in the breaking, and through anchoring myself deeply in Jesus.
Never Forget Where Your Strength Comes From
Today, I have been a licensed therapist working in this field since 1997. I carry skills, training, and years of experience. But what I have come to understand is this. Without Jesus, and without the leading of the Holy Spirit, it is simply a piece of paper.
There is a place we all reach where our skills and training can only take us so far. A ceiling that we cannot move past on our own. But when the Holy Spirit is given permission to lead, those same skills, that same training, and the wisdom that comes after the storm are no longer limited. They are led.
Some moments leave you undone. Moments where the presence of Jesus fills the room so deeply that words fall away.
I remember reaching over and placing my hand on someone whose rib was out of place. Through a simple act of faith and obedience, I felt it shift and come back into alignment under my hand.
There are moments like that where you realize this was never just about what you were trained to do.
And there are also the quiet ones. The moments where a heart that has been breaking simply wants to be held, and somehow, in His presence, it is soothed in a way no method or model could ever accomplish.
The little girl sitting in that classroom could not have imagined this. She could not have known that what would grow in her was not just a desire to help people, but a deep longing for Jesus. A longing so strong that it becomes the very thing she wants others to encounter.
Because at the end of it all, leadership is not sustained by a degree, a title, or the strength to build. It is not held together by striving or performance.
It has always been Jesus who holds you.
And when a leader truly knows this, it changes what they carry. It changes what they build. It becomes an infrastructure rooted in something that cannot collapse.
Leaders do not lead well because they have it all together.
Leaders lead when they have found Jesus in the midst of it all.
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Tina Smith
Author | Mentor | Supervisor | Mediator-in-Training | International Coach | Director | Founder of Selah Treatment Center
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