Mentoring

I highly recommend having a mentor.

This is an area we as humans tend to over think, but the relationship is so valuable it isn’t worth avoiding out of anxiety or feeling as though we have no one in our lives who would fit the role.

Two years ago at a ladies conference one of the speakers was talking about the beauty and benefits of having an older woman as a mentor and it encouraged me to give it a try.

Of course I thought of our church first, and no one fit my mental idea of what a mentor should be like. We have no grandmothers in our group, and only a few grey hairs.

But I’ve come to realize that the qualifications for a mentor are really not that complicated.

* She must be farther down the road than me.

* She must be headed in the same direction I want to go.

Beyond those criteria there is nothing very critical to success. Relationship happens over time. My own willingness to open up and share freely comes with time.

Two years ago I asked a friend to be my mentor. She is ten years farther down the road than me in mothering, homeschooling, and being married to a visionary man. We meet once a month for a chat that always gets long and I come away encouraged Every. Single. Time.

Sometimes we don’t even talk much about deep things, but it is so meaningful to have someone to share with who can speak into my life and situation without being a part of it. We always pray for each other at the end, and I feel so blessed to have someone checking in on me to see how I’m doing with a struggle I had shared about a few months ago.

As Titus 2 says,
‘That the older women may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home.’

Have you ever had someone mentor you?