Some folks avoid good influence like they avoid influenza.
They prefer to be influenced by
Hollywood, TV shows or rocket scientists in their peer group. Some of my favorite “teens influencing teens”
movies are some oldies: Sixteen Candles,
the Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s
Day Off.
In these highly intellectual films, the teenagers were quite
wise- giving each other sage advice about life and love. The adults were buffoons,
easy to outsmart. I can remember
identifying with the teens, I wanted them to stick it to the oldies who didn’t
know ANYTHING!
Now that I am an older
adult, these kind of stories still sell movie tickets. YIKES!
Truly, I do get it, we older folks are many times out of touch with what
is going on, and to be honest, many of us are ripe to poke fun at. The grandparents in Sixteen Candles are my favorite oldies- they are a hoot!
To be honest, it is not only teenagers that avoid good wise
influence like the flu. Many of us don’t
like to be told we are not making wise choices.
We seek our own counsel in the decisions we make and many times make a
mess.
When I was a young mom, I longed for an older, wiser woman to help me
when I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t
live close to family, and sometimes I
was not sure I was making the proper mamma choices.
I guess I was looking for a spiritual/personal mentor.
Sadly, a mentor was hard to find. Not many felt qualified, or wanted to put in
the work of doing it. However , if you know me, I was tenacious, and God was
good to me.
While working in the
Personnel Dept of my mission organization, there were a couple of women that
I worked with who became my professional as well as personal mentors. They were older and much wiser than me, in so
many ways. I relied on their counsel more times than you
can imagine, and still do to this day. Lately I have become great friends with a woman a little older than me who is very wise. She is an awesome mentor.
Here are some What
in the Cathair thoughts on mentorship:
1.YOU NEED ONE.
Period, no excuses. I don’t care
if you are 16 or 60, there is always someone older and wiser than you who has been
there done that, they can HELP you.
Don’t seek your own counsel or heaven forbid , the counsel of your peer
group who has NOT been there. Don’t avoid the influence of a wise mentor like influenza:)
!!GET OUT THERE AND FIND ONE!!
2.Professional mentors can be of the opposite sex.
Not so
with personal mentors.
Women need Women
Men need Men.
I hope I don’t have to go
into all of the reasons for this.
There are
16 million.
3.YOU need to be a mentor to someone. As you age you have been through life
experience that is invaluable to someone
younger than you.
FIND SOMEONE TO MENTOR.
This is God’s will
for you.
I am sure of it.
4.Scripture has many examples of mentoring. If you want to
read about it, open your Bible to almost any page. Here is an excerpt from and article about
mentoring and the website if you want to
read more:
“Although the Bible doesn’t use the words mentor, mentee, or
mentoring, it frequently refers to what we believe are successful mentoring
relationships: Jesus and His disciples, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Timothy,
Naomi and Ruth, Elijah and Elisha, Moses and Joshua, Deborah and Barak,
Elizabeth and Mary (the mother of Jesus), and many others. All are powerful
examples of pairs and the God-inspired
actions they took to help each other develop.”
There is much more to be said about this topic, but for
now:
JUST DO IT
A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine who is a 20 something asked
me to mentor her and a couple of her friends.
I was honored to say the least. We are opening up scripture together,
and talking about things happening in their lives.
IT REALLY IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT
Influence someone intentionally, and be influenced intentionally.
Leave the influenza out of it:)
okay, okay....does it count if I agreed to be a mentor mom for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)? Denise, will you be my mentor mom?
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