Me a Mentor?
Café Menu for Monday, June 9, 2014
Today’s Special is: Are You Kidding?
Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Stephanie Shott
Main Ingredient:
The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed
Titus 2:3-5 NKJV
Entrée:
When she asked me to be her mentor my heart went into panic mode. “Who me? Are you kidding? I wouldn’t know what to say, what to do, or even what kind of resources to use!” Maybe you’ve felt the same way before too.
I knew I wasn’t mentor material and the whole idea of mentoring left me shaking in my shoes.
Feeling completely inadequate and totally intimidated, I really wanted to say no. I mean mentoring is archaic and awkward, right?
But I agreed to pray about it, and as I did, the Titus 2 call began to haunt my heart.
How could I say no when it’s what God’s Word calls us to? But how could I say yes when I was scared stiff? Well, God’s Word won the war in my heart and I started meeting with her every Wednesday afternoon.
It was a journey of discovery that I wouldn’t have missed for the world!
I learned that:
- I didn’t have all the answers.
- That mentoring is much more about walking with someone through a season of life than it is about telling them how to walk through it alone.
- That some of the most meaningful mentoring moments are found in those transparent places where we’re willing to share more from our failures than from our successes.
- I discovered that mentoring is the overflow of our relationship with God - and that we’re never more fulfilled than when we are pouring ourselves out for Christ.
Mentoring is just living out Titus 2. A passage that is so practical and so daily. Teach the younger women to manage their homes, love their husbands, and love their children.
It’s easy to feel intimidated when we think about mentoring. But God rarely calls us to do what we’re courageous enough to conquer on our own. He calls us to that place of faith - where we see Him move in ways we could never see if we continued to cling to the comfortable and convenient.
I never had a mentor, but I was glad I didn’t let the fear of becoming one prevent me from fulfilling God’s Titus 2 call. In 2012, the Lord led me to launch a missional mentoring ministry that focuses on reaching the moms of this generation so we can reach the heart of the next generation - to impact our communities and this culture through the power of missional mentoring.
And it all started when I said yes to that sweet lady over 20 years ago.
Take Out:
Does the idea of mentoring someone or being mentored by someone intimidate you?
We are always to be both...a mentor and a mentee. So, today, I want to encourage you to write down the name(s) of the woman or women God has placed in your life for you to mentor as well as those whom you would like to mentor you.
Then go ahead and give them call and schedule a time to get together and talk about meeting on a regular basis. It could be over lunch once a week, in a park, at the local coffee shop or at your dining room table. But become intentional about mentoring at least one other person and allowing someone else to mentor you.
Dessert:
Precious Father, You call us to do life together. You tell us in Your Word that two are better than one (Ecclesiastes 4:9), that there is safety in a multitude of counselors (Proverbs 24:6) and that iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17). Lord, mentoring scares me! And I know that I’m not enough on my own...but I also know that You make me enough because You live in me. Please never allow fear to prevent me from fulfilling Your Titus 2 call on my life. And please surround me with godly women who have been where I am and who will speak truth, encouragement, and wisdom into my life so I can fulfill Your will for each moment of each day You have given me.
© 2014 by Stephanie Shott. All rights reserved.
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