Tonight I witnessed the clarity that comes from keen observation. Many times this quality separates the Holy Spirit-gifted leaders from the general pool of influencers. I ate dinner with one of Auxano account executives, Shawna Stengle. She has two beautiful 18-month old twins names Kyla and Kyrsten. As I starred at those little blue-eyed bundles of cuteness, I was taken by their identical attributes. So I naively asked Shawna how she tells her girls apart. A list of attributes quickly reeled from Shawna’s lips, from the veins on their faces, to their distinct hairlines. Oh, how the affection and proximity of the mother sees what no other can see! Her keen observation made me reflect on gifted leadership. What would our churches be like if our leadership observed their people and their communities with the proximity and affection of a mother. What if our vision was forged from a Godly preoccupation with our locale rather than what works at another church? It reminds of a definition of genius as the ability to scrutinize the obvious.