Mentors—Connecting Up - The Warrior's Journey®

Mentors—Connecting Up

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Our lives are the sum of our choices and others’ choices.

Everything from what to wear, what to do with an unexpectedly free afternoon, how to treat your siblings, parents and friends, to even harder choices like what school will you go to – they’re all choices we have to make. How will you represent yourself in this new place? Should you date this person or go to this place Friday night? The list seems endless.

Because of this, I would argue that the choices you make are pretty important. Some more than others, but they all affect your life. How do you know you are making the best choices? Sometimes it can be hard to tell when all of your friends are saying one thing, but your gut is telling you something else. This is why connecting up is so important! Specifically, this is why finding wise counsel is so important, often times through the form of a mentor.

Story:

When I look back at my time in high school and at youth group; I was pretty lucky. Not long after I started going each week, I met Ann. She was one of our leaders at youth group, and she had a deep love for students! When I think about it, I’m not sure how I ended up in her small group, all I can say is God was looking out or me.

Not long after I started going to youth group there, Ann and I started meeting each week. We would talk about all sorts of different things: boys, school, work, the things I wanted to do, my passions, dreams, relationships with friends, sisters and parents. She was pretty cool, always had solid advice, but more importantly, was a really good listener. The best things she did for me though was ask me about God and not just if I believed in him, but whether or not I was pursuing him, looking for him in my life and seeking to know him better.

When I think about Ann, lots of different things come to mind; the many different things that she taught me over the three years that we met each week, the fun times that we shared, the small group she led with me and my other friends, but specifically I remember the day that she challenged me to trust the other people in our small group and in our youth group.

A good friend had hurt me in the past and because of that I was having a hard time trusting the other people in my life. It had been a hard betrayal to swallow, and I was feeling defensive. Ann knew what had happened, and she had watched me throughout the year and saw how the hurt played out in my life. I guess you could say I had no idea it was still affecting me! I mean I had friends, lots of them. When I started going to youth group I fit in right away and made some really good friends. We all hung out, people came over to my house to chill every week, and I was really close with each of my friends. I thought I was doing pretty well! So you can imagine I was confused when Ann told me that my friendships were shallow. In my mind they were anything but shallow. I told her I had great friendships! I knew all my friends’ hurts, pains, dreams, challenges and desires, even things like their favorite sports teams or hobbies; I knew my friends.

This is when Ann rocked my world.

She told me “No. You don’t have good friends.” She paused for a second then she said, “You may be a good friend to them, but it’s one way. You may know all of their stories, but how many of them know yours?” She was good at that. Leaving me with a question that I had to think about, something that shifted my perspective.

It was like a curtain was lifted and I saw clearly for the first time. She was right! None of them knew about the betrayal I had experienced, the hurt that I felt because of it, and the other things that had happened in my life. None. I had been hiding behind everyone else and their stories because I had been hurt. I was there for everyone, but when someone asked about me, I had mastered the skill of turning the conversation back on him or her.

Over the next two years Ann would continuously challenge me in this area. She would ask me about my friendships, encourage me to trust others and challenge me in my beliefs. My mentor Ann saw who I was, but also saw who I could be. She reminded me that even Jesus had the three that he was closer with, shared what he could with. And she gave me one of my favorite verses, Matthew 17:20 which reads, “…I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, ‘Go from here to there!’ and it will go. You could do anything!

Ann laid out the choices for me. She showed me that I could keep living the way that I was, not trusting and running myself thin, or I could trust God to move the hills in my life. In other translations it reads mountains. I like ‘mountains’ better in this case because for me trusting others wasn’t a hill, it was a HUGE mountain-sized challenge that God helped me to overcome!

Ann did for me what others could not. She gave me strength to do what I thought was impossible, and she taught me to depend on God, but she was able to do this because of the relationship we had built. Ann was my mentor for three years. In that time she met me where I was, walked with me, was a safe place, a place to hear truth, a person to challenge me and another person who loved me. Mentors are a gift. They can be hard to find sometimes, but it’s worth the search. They provide a solid ‘place’ where you know you belong. Find someone who you can walk through life with so that when you are facing a crossroad, you have sound wisdom to listen to. Mentors offer us relationships that are crucial for developing resilience in our lives!

Bible Intro:

When we look at the account of Esther, we see the true power of a mentor. Esther is an orphan, left with no parents, but fortunately her older cousin has taken her in and raised her. As we follow Esther through a chain of wild events we see that she is eventually selected to be Queen to the King! However, the account does not stop there. One of the Kings men has decided he wants to kill off all of the Jews, the nationality in which Esther and her family are. The time and day have been set for the genocide of the Jews, everyone is scared. This is when Esther’s cousin comes to her in Esther 4:1–27, he tells her that she has to say something to the King because he does not realize what is about to take place and he is the only one who can stop it.

When you look at the verses you can see Esther is afraid to approach the King at first, she could be killed! But her cousin speaks truth into her life and reminds her that God has made her Queen for a reason! To save a nation!

Scripture: Esther 4

Personal Questions:

  1. Looking back on your life, was there ever at time someone spoke truth to you? Showed you something you hadn’t realized you were doing? What was it like? How did it make you feel, did you change?
  2. Have you ever thought about finding a mentor?
  3. What do you think the benefits of having a mentor might be?
  4. As you look back, are there times when it would have been nice to have a mentor? How would having one may have changed the outcome of the situation?
  5. Maybe you have a mentor, how did it change or effect what you chose to do?

Continue interacting with this topic here.

Prayer:

Father, help me to remember that I do belong, that I do have something to offer. To remember that you made me and I have value! Guide me Father as I walk through life. There are so many different things that come up and sometimes I just don’t know what to do, but you do Father, and you know who can help me, give me wise council. Open my eyes Father, help me to see these people when I feel stuck and Father… I think I may want to find a mentor, someone who will be consistent in my life, would you guide me in this process to find someone. Would you help me find the right person? We pray these things in Jesus’ powerful name, Amen.


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