Thursday, March 15, 2012

If You Don't Have One, Get a Mentor

Whether it is a spiritual mentor for spiritual accountability.
Or a professional one for professional growth.

Seek one out. Find a person as described below and just ask them. If they say no, then that was NOT someone you want giving you feedback, don't be offended. Keep looking and seek them out. You would be surprised how complimented they will be that you want to benefit from their experience.

Choose someone who is older, wiser, has "been where you are", who will listen, but also speak Truth to you.

Just meet over a meal and have honest discussion. You might meet with this person monthly, quarterly, maybe every 6 months, it depends on your situation.

Share things you've been dealing with and what you think about how you're handling it and your thoughts on it. Then ask what they see in you and your situation. Ask what they've been through or how they handled it.

I felt better to hear someone 13 years older than me tell me that she didn't REALLY grow into her patience until her 40's. I'll be 40 this year, I thought I'd be more patient by now. I feel a smidge better to know I'm not alone in this growing process.

She observed things in me and made recommendations on my own growth and development. She encouraged me that I have all the tools, I just need to figure out what toolbox to put them in (my words, not hers). And now that she is aware of some of my challenges at work, she has said she plans to check in with me more because she genuinely wants to help me grow. (God is so good!)

There are many sides to each of us.

There is who I think I am, who others think I am, how I actually am, how I want to be and how I think I should be....

The fact is, none of it matters when your identity resides firmly planted in Christ. His deep and intimate love for you, His personal care in creating every aspect of who you are, His interest in your every struggle and challenge, His joy in your joys, He created you and He wants to be with you and you were made exactly as you are for a purpose.

You just have to embrace who you are in Christ. Submit to Him and He will shape you into a beautiful masterpiece. For His original creation of you was perfect...but the world tends to bend, shape, break us at times...mostly BEFORE we truly come to Christ... (though getting saved does NOT remove the struggles...just helps you rise above them, you view them through new eyes and have a new power Source).

As you submit more to Him and less to the world, you begin to reflect more of Him and less of you...

God is all about relationships.

And relating Himself to others through you.
Loving others through you.
Revealing Himself to others through you.
You don't make it happen... The Holy Spirit knows when they are ready, but you need to be pliable and willing and not a hindrance to this process through pride and rebellion or resistance.

He is the hand, you are the glove.

The flexible shall not be bent out of shape - they are useful and adaptable.

So regarding a mentor...it's a way to help you grow, to get genuine feedback from someone who is not a peer, and through hearing about their life perspective, it might rejuvenate you in ways you never imagined. It can be a real blessing.

God can speak directly to you or through a Pastor's message, through a non-christian, through an off-handed conversation at work where He brings something to your mind that needs addressing...

God is always on duty and always speaking.... is your tuner tuned in and sensitive to it?

Be blessed today. You are so loved.

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