A mentor is defined as “a trusted counselor or guide” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. As a pastor’s wife, mentoring is an avenue of ministry that I do with joy and a deep sense of responsibility. It is sometimes formally but often spontaneously on the phone or in a face-to-face conversation with another woman. Although mentoring is often seen as the pastor’s wife’s “job,” it should be seen as an opportunity for each of us.
According to the above definition, we each are wise and trusted in our advice about something. We can’t all be mentors of the same things, but if we take seriously the responsibility of mentoring others in our family, church and circles of influence, how much richer we all would be.
But you say, “I couldn’t do that…I’m not good enough at anything.” That’s a denial of God’s gift to you! Perhaps you don’t feel equipped to mentor a young mom in her walk with the Lord and how that affects her marriage and family; but could you mentor a younger woman on a skill you possess such as cooking, technology, sewing, gardening or decorating? Could you partner with a woman less experienced than you and train her to become better at something she currently is weak in?
My prayer is that you be involved in mentoring relationships with other women, both as a mentor and as a mentee. Find someone who is wiser than you in an area of your weakness and ask her to be your mentor. Then ask the Lord to send someone to you who you can mentor in an area of your strength and that woman’s desired area of growth. We can hone our skills through mentoring one another…this is God’s command for us.
Let’s see mentoring as a way of life and not as a “job” for someone else.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:3-5
Authored by Ruthann Gleason