I just got back from spending a couple hours with a wonderful young lady, in which I've had the privilege and blessing to get to know a bit better in the past month.
Let's first start off with this: I believe in the past I've mentioned at least once that I am student leader for youth group. In the past few months, my youth pastor switched up our bi-weekly meetings. Rather than talking about what games to play, what "cool" events we could do in the future, etc, it's been changed into a discipleship time. In this time he has turned it into a time to study the Gospel and also have brief devotions on the key elements that make up a leader. One of these elements is taking initiative.
I don't know about you, but I personally love to take initiative, in fact, it comes pretty much automatically and naturally for me. For a while, I didn't even realize that taking initiative was part of my personality. So how does the leadership meetings and me liking initiative connect? Well, part of the devotion about a leader taking initiative was that another way to put it was a leader that takes initiative is a leader who sees a problem, a need, and fills it, or does whatever he/she can to work on it.
A few weeks ago during small group, I saw one of these needs with a certain younger girl, and instantly God tugged at my heart to fill that need. And I listened to that tugging.
In other words, I've become a mentor...and I love it! It's so wonderful to forget about yourself, forget about your own personal life and "little world" and be there for someone else, to listen to someone else, to be someone that another can lean on for love, support and encouragement. And to think, I'm only 17!
I think sometimes we assume that due to our youth, that we can't be a mentor - that we're not qualified. But there will always be someone younger than you. In fact, you may not realize it, but I can guarantee that there's someone out there that looks up to you, whether they show it or admit it or not. Do you know what a privilege that is? What an opportunity that is?
I have an 8 year old niece, who some of you may have seen in my "The Cupcake Rap" video which I posted several weeks ago. She has looked up to me for quite some time, and for a while I honestly didn't care and if I'm honest, I (now regretfully) found it slightly annoying. I really dislike when anyone tries to be similar to me in speech, apparel, attitude, etc. I want everyone to be their own self and personality. A little over eight months ago, back in September, after something happened in my life, I decided that I would dedicate every Thursday night to spending time with my niece. And I'm so glad I did. There have been times when we've had some serious discussion, or she's asked a question which I'm glad to have had the opportunity to answer. I've been able to share Christ through my opinions or ideas. More recently, we've begun a devotional, which I'm so happy for because now we'll always have at least one conversation about something biblical (yay!).
Now before I ramble on and tell you my whole life story (which I think I pretty much just did...), I'll stop!
The whole point of this post is that there are a lot of people out there who really could use a mentor. I know from my own personal experience, how much I have valued the thoughts, opinions, and wisdom of women older than me. They're encouraging and uplifting, and so, so selfless. They are women who I long to be like, or perhaps I should say that they represent Christ so well that it points me towards being more Christ-like, and gives me a desire to be more Christ-like.
Is there someone in your life that you could be a mentor to? Don't worry - You don't have to know all the answers, or be some super duper wise know-it-all Christian. But you do have more experience, things you've gone through, you also (hopefully) have a more matured spiritual walk with Christ, which can be very beneficial to the newbies. :)
Maybe you could be a mentor to someone. Consider it.
"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."
Proverbs 27:17
Let's first start off with this: I believe in the past I've mentioned at least once that I am student leader for youth group. In the past few months, my youth pastor switched up our bi-weekly meetings. Rather than talking about what games to play, what "cool" events we could do in the future, etc, it's been changed into a discipleship time. In this time he has turned it into a time to study the Gospel and also have brief devotions on the key elements that make up a leader. One of these elements is taking initiative.
I don't know about you, but I personally love to take initiative, in fact, it comes pretty much automatically and naturally for me. For a while, I didn't even realize that taking initiative was part of my personality. So how does the leadership meetings and me liking initiative connect? Well, part of the devotion about a leader taking initiative was that another way to put it was a leader that takes initiative is a leader who sees a problem, a need, and fills it, or does whatever he/she can to work on it.
A few weeks ago during small group, I saw one of these needs with a certain younger girl, and instantly God tugged at my heart to fill that need. And I listened to that tugging.
I think sometimes we assume that due to our youth, that we can't be a mentor - that we're not qualified. But there will always be someone younger than you. In fact, you may not realize it, but I can guarantee that there's someone out there that looks up to you, whether they show it or admit it or not. Do you know what a privilege that is? What an opportunity that is?
I have an 8 year old niece, who some of you may have seen in my "The Cupcake Rap" video which I posted several weeks ago. She has looked up to me for quite some time, and for a while I honestly didn't care and if I'm honest, I (now regretfully) found it slightly annoying. I really dislike when anyone tries to be similar to me in speech, apparel, attitude, etc. I want everyone to be their own self and personality. A little over eight months ago, back in September, after something happened in my life, I decided that I would dedicate every Thursday night to spending time with my niece. And I'm so glad I did. There have been times when we've had some serious discussion, or she's asked a question which I'm glad to have had the opportunity to answer. I've been able to share Christ through my opinions or ideas. More recently, we've begun a devotional, which I'm so happy for because now we'll always have at least one conversation about something biblical (yay!).
Now before I ramble on and tell you my whole life story (which I think I pretty much just did...), I'll stop!
The whole point of this post is that there are a lot of people out there who really could use a mentor. I know from my own personal experience, how much I have valued the thoughts, opinions, and wisdom of women older than me. They're encouraging and uplifting, and so, so selfless. They are women who I long to be like, or perhaps I should say that they represent Christ so well that it points me towards being more Christ-like, and gives me a desire to be more Christ-like.
Is there someone in your life that you could be a mentor to? Don't worry - You don't have to know all the answers, or be some super duper wise know-it-all Christian. But you do have more experience, things you've gone through, you also (hopefully) have a more matured spiritual walk with Christ, which can be very beneficial to the newbies. :)
Maybe you could be a mentor to someone. Consider it.
"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."
Proverbs 27:17
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