Qualities of A Mentor
As mentioned in the last WeConnect Update, during the next few months I’ll be covering some of the information that came out of the Organic Mentoring Conference panel discussions, and each month I’ll share the millennials’ answers to one of the panel questions (as provided by Sue in her book).The panelists range in age from 21 to 34. All are Bible-believing Christians who love God and are actively seeking Him in their daily lives.
Question: What qualities do you admire in older women? What would you look for in a mentor?
A: I think spiritual maturity. You have more miles. Their phase of life is different. They’re not dealing with dirty diapers anymore necessarily; the day to day chaos of being young, even if you’re not a mom. The hustle and bustle is a little different, so it’s nice to have a peaceful, wise, person of more mileage.
B: I would say, for me, it’s two things. Humility and laid-backness. Humility would be being able to understand that, yeah you do know some things, but you also don’t know other things. And understanding that there’s always somewhere for us to learn. You don’t assume you know everything that your friend needs to know when you go into a friendship. You don’t assume you know everything your spouse … at least I hope you don’t assume you know everything your spouse needs to know when you go into a relationship. And we don’t want that assumption coming into a relationship as a mentee. So that would be one. And laid-backness is like not taking things too seriously, and being able to be flexible with other people. I have a busy schedule, and your schedule’s probably busier than mine, because I don’t have children, and you probably do. So I understand that you need me to be flexible. But I need that flexibility back as well. It needs to be reciprocal.
K: I think encouragement is really important and I think that even just seeing the young mom at church or a young college student at church and being like “I’m really glad to see you” or “Can I help carry your diaper bag” or anything like that just reaches in and speaks wonders to somebody who might be having a really really rough go of it. I think approachability, in terms of knowing that I can talk to you about a spiritual crisis or an emotional crisis or I can sort of come to you and “blaaaah” and you’re like “it’s OK, have a cup of tea” and not be like weirded off by whatever might be going on in my life. I think that having wisdom and those qualities like that you can see but you don’t feel like they’re doling it out, if that makes any sense, not like “oh let me share with you”. That doesn’t help. But knowing that you’re gleaning wisdom … it’s tricky. This is a tricky thing that you guys need to learn how to do. To give the wisdom but don’t dole the wisdom out. And I’ve always looked for mentors who are actively serving and seeking to expand God’s kingdom because I know that that’s what I want to be like. I want to model my life after people who are putting Jesus first and trying to make His name great, and so be that in your church. Be super active, be involved in things, be serving, because that will model even if you’re not sitting down and mentoring someone; you are modeling what an amazing godly woman can do in God’s kingdom.
I hope that each month you feel enlightened and challenged by some of what our millennials had to share! If you have thoughts or questions, please feel free to email me.Thank you for your prayers as we develop the WeConnect Leadership Team, the team of millennials who will be casting the vision for the WeConnect ministry and implementing a plan to help millennials re-connect with God and grow in their relationship with Him. We appreciate you all so much! We currently have two women who have agreed to serve and several more who are praying about it. Thanks for your continued faithful prayers!Keep hoping. Keep praying. Keep loving.Kristi, for WeConnect