Foundations lead to structure
Foundations are important and need to be correct and strong before you build anything.
Our next door neighbours embarked on a building project that they were told would take about six months. Unfortunately once it started the builders found out that the previous owners had done a poor job with the foundations at the back of the house and these needed to be re-dug. The good news is they found the issue before building on the poor foundations. The bad news is that this unplanned work delayed the work for over three months and led to a lot of pain.
If the foundations had been correct in the first place then this could have been avoided.
In the book Crazy Faith by Michael Todd, he states:
The integrity of the foundation you build your life on determines the type of structure that can be built on it.
This is true in building, in life and in work. It is worth investing time in getting the foundations right before you build or grow.
We spent a lot of time in the team I work with building the foundations of the culture and the way we work. It was a conscious decision and it took effort to build it. Sometimes there was pressure from other areas in the business to change but, where it was important, we resisted that pressure. This has proved to be the right decision and the team has flourished.
Our church is relatively new - about two and a half years old. At our church we have had a year where out focus has been on building the foundations and it now feels like those are in place and we can now build on them.
As parents, we have spent time building the foundations into our family; in the way we do life and in the way our children are growing up. I am not claiming we have got all the foundations completely right by any stretch, however we have spent time trying to get them as much in place as we can.
Foundations are important - it can be worth spending the time to get them right.
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