The Gift Of A Mentor

The Gift of a Mentor

Older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good. Titus 2:4-5

What a great gift it is when someone a little further along in life mentors you. A mentor is someone who’ll teach you all she knows and welcome your questions. She may see talents you don’t see in yourself and challenge you to use them. A mentor may be very different from you: ten years older, married or single or widowed. She may see motherhood as her career or be pursuing growth in the corporate world. But she has experience and wisdom that will enrich your life.

Mentors have been very important in my own journey: Kathryn, a freelance writer who taught me much about writing articles effectively and getting published. Patty, a zany, dear friend who encourages me to slow down and take care of myself when I am running on overdrive and doing too much. Through her example, I also learned how to celebrate life in each decade. Flo, forty years older than me, who opened her home for us young mothers and prayed with us for our children and husbands. She also shared stories, over banana bread and tea, of God’s faithfulness.

How thankful I am for the women who came alongside me and encouraged me to be the woman God created me to be, just as Titus 2:4-5 describes. How good of God to provide spiritual moms, especially since my own mother died when she was fifty-nine. But he doesn’t provide these women in the body of Christ just for me. He has them for you as well—women who can encourage, nurture, and help you learn and grow, whatever your season of life. If you don’t have a mentor, ask God to bring such a woman into your life. And be willing to be used in the same way as a blessing to another woman. —CHERI

Father, thank you for the mentors you’ve put in my life. Open my mind to their words of wisdom. Open my heart to those I can mentor, which will be a double blessing as I bless their lives and they enrich mine.

Mentoring moments may not be prolonged, but when someone whom you respect says just the right words or gives you the attention when you need it the most, that effect can last a lifetime.

—BETTY SOUTHARD, AUTHOR, SPEAKER, AND CERTIFIED PERSONALITY TRAINER