![[Graphic of the mentoring process]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/mentoring.jpg)
| “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” |
| —John 13:15 |
| “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” |
| —1 Corinthians 11:1 |
Do you know that every one needs a mentor? Now that word “mentor” is a word that at lot of people throw around quite casually in conversation these days. The word “mentor” really means: “a teacher who teaches by example.”
We learn lots of things by watching how other people accomplish whatever they are doing. Have you ever watched “Mister Rogers” or “Sesame Street” or one of the other children’s programs when one of the characters shows the viewers how to do something? Then later, you (or your children) tried to do that same thing? Sure you have. You learned because you saw someone else do something and, as a result, you were now able to do whatever they showed you. With practice, you could keep doing that same task until you could do that “something,” too.
Think about how you learned to pray. Maybe the first time you became conscious of prayer, it was your mom or dad who prayed with you. Perhaps, you were a very little boy or girl at the time. I imagine that mom or dad said something like, “Now bow your head and close your eyes and we’re going to pray.” Then mom or dad would bow his or her head and close his or her eyes and pray a prayer with you.
Every time mom or dad prayed with you, he or she would say, “Now bow your head and close your eyes and we’re going to pray.” Pretty soon, you knew that when it was time to pray it was also time to bow your head and close your eyes.
At the same time, you listened carefully to what mom or dad said to God when they prayed. Maybe they asked God to give you a peaceful and restful night’s sleep. Perhaps they asked God to protect you, your brothers and sisters, your grandma and grandpa, your uncles and aunts. They may even have thanked God for sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in order to forgive your sins. Eventually, by doing what mom or dad asked you to do and by listening to what they said to God, you learned how to pray for yourself. You learned how to pray by following what mom and dad showed you.
Or, maybe, you didn’t grow up in a praying household and the first time you prayed was as a teenager, or even as an adult. Even then, didn’t you learn how to pray by listening to someone else, or maybe many others, pray? Sure you did.
The lesson for today is that God wants us to learn from each other. And,more so, God wants us to be teachers to all of our friends and all of the other people we see each day. He wants us to show them the right way to do things. God wants us to live our lives in such a way that we can be good teachers—good mentors—to others.
You can learn how to mentor others by always choosing what you know is the right thing to do. We sometimes try to kid ourselves into believing that we have many choices in every situation. The truth is that, in every situation we encounter in life, we really do know, within the depth of our being, what is the right thing to do in each circumstance. That nudging within us is the Holy Spirit. He is helping us to know what the right thing to do is in every situation.
God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell within everyone who acknowledges that the Lord Jesus Christ is his or her Savior. The Holy Spirit helps keep us on the pathway that God has laid out before us. The Holy Spirit helps us choose to do the right thing whenever we must make a choice.
So, you can learn how to be a good and effective mentor by listening carefully for that nudge from the Holy Spirit. Choose to do the right thing in every case and you will become a good mentor.
