Mentoring

In resent days Mentoring has come up in my conversations many times. In my classes at Ravencrest I am being made to get a mentor to interact with. The thing that really got me thinking about mentoring (more specifically what mentoring is) is Chris' blog (www.ChrisWarren.org) and his post asking what community is. As I was reading and started to think about it some of the conversation about Mentoring came to my mind. As I thought about the subject there were a few things came to mind.

If you take the word at it's original meaning a mentor would come along side a person for an extended period of time (usually years) and would observe and try to impact every part of a persons development. Even Jesus picked out a small group of 12 people to mentor, out of those 12 He picked 3 to primarily focus on (Peter, James and John), Later Paul would become the mentor of Timothy to the point of calling himself Timothy's spiritual father. In his letter the Romans Paul says that he “longs to see in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you” (Romans 1:11-12a).

All of that is good but if you don't have the time to be mentored long term or to mentor a person long term this could make you feel like you aren't going to be used in someone’s life to help grow them, that if someone moves around a lot or they have a job that would only let them meet with someone a few times a year that they can't be used By God. The truth is that you can be used in a very short time. I heard a joke in the past week were a man gets to talk with God, so the man asks God could you explain time to me? So God tell the man that 1,000,000 years is like 1 second and 1 second is like 1,000,000 years. Then the man asks could you explain what money is like to you? So God says 1 penny is like 1,000,000 dollars and 1,000,000 dollars is like 1 penny. So the man then asks can I have 1 of your pennies? God says sure, in 1 second. The same principle would apply to mentoring, it may seem like a short time to you (and a longer relationship is ideal) God can use anytime you can give. This is after all the God who destroyed the temple in 3 days which took man years to build.

Paul says in Romans one of the reasons that he wants to come to them is so that he may, through mentoring them, may be encouraged himself. Mentoring is not only for the benefit of the mentee but also for the encouragement and growth of the mentor. Mentoring can be very challenging to the mentor because in seeing someone else's struggles you can often see what areas of your life you struggle with (whether you want to or not). In those times it is important to have someone who you can go to and talk to so you can work through those problems in your life.

Once you find a struggle or problem in your own life one thought that will come up is how you can mentor someone when you have your own inadequacies and failures, but God can work in your failures and mine. It says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 “Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong”. The Bible tells us in this and other passages that in our weakness God is strong because for most of us it is only in those that we truly rely on God, which is the most important thing when it comes to mentoring.

The last thing in this post is some more practical things on mentoring. A vary critical part in the mentor mentee relationship is honesty on both parts. Honesty, however, should start with the mentor, If he or she can't be honest they can't expect the mentee to be honest either. Another thing that is helpful is to a have a direction in the relationship, to have a focus, not just coming together to hang out but to clearly define the relationship as a mentoring relationship otherwise that mentoring relationship can fall apart through the course of time the relationship can fall away never to get back to what it could have been. A third thing that can help in mentoring someone is being mentored yourself. It is helpful in those times that you find that you have things to work on and when you face a problem that you don't know how to handle, even Jesus turned to the Father for help when He was down (Matthew 26:39)

The relationship that can be built by a mentoring relationship can be one that lasts for a vary long time and have lasting affects

Scripture used:

Romans 1:9-12 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.

2 Co 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong .

Matthew 26:36-46 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 " Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 "Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"

NASU