Dinner With My Mentees

After I entered my “second calling” (I like that word better than “retirement”), I began unofficially mentoring Laura, Stephanie, Lisa and Spring. (The girl in orange is Spring's friend Regina.)

My four young women friends all have a passion for Christ, they’re all worship leaders, they all have husbands with needs to be met, and they all have daughters to raise up to be godly young women in an ungodly world.

I thought maybe they could use a little encouragement and support.

I don’t know a lot about mentoring, but I DID read this and it spoke to me:
“God is calling us women in the second half of life to be encouragers and teachers to younger women. Maybe it means he wants us to just provide a place and time to meet. Perhaps he will call us to start a Bible study. Whatever the case, all he asks of us is an open heart. Often it’s just the willingness to put your arm around a younger woman and tell her that she’s going to make it through this phase of life.”

We haven't had much time together with everyone’s busy schedules, but most of them have met with me weekly for the last month or so. We went to Western Sizzlin' tonight, and our next outing will be lunch at McDonald's (so they can bring their kids) next month. Even though we can't meet often, I CAN tell them that they're going to make it through all the stress and busyness and responsibility they have!

The first time we met rogether (at the Marina back in December), I gave them this challenge from the Bible as a goal:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t be so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.” (Rom. 12:1-2)

I want to encourage them to live fully in the season they are in. I want them to learn from my mistakes, to choose carefully what they will do, which at times may mean doing less and doing it well. I want them to understand that there’s plenty of time left after their kids are grown, so they don’t have to do it all; they just have to focus on what really counts.
.
And because it’s really hard to fix your attention on God without being in the Word daily, we've all got copies of The Message in a daily reading format. I challenged them to read through the Bible with me in 2007, and they're doing very well! I've always enjoyed reading a One Year Bible, and so many times through the years God has taken me through things at the exact time that he knew I would be reading in a place where the words would give me direction. I promised them that God would speak a personal “for the moment” word to them when they need it, too, if they are in the Word regularly. Sometimes we email our insights from our day's reading, too.
.
The foundation of my second calling is prayer. They know they can call or email me whenever they have a specific need, and I will intercede in prayer for them. I’m not very good at praying around the world (or praying for people I don’t know), but if I know one of my mentees has a specific need, the Holy Spirit will lead me to carry that in my heart and pray for it unceasingly.
.
It's a cool assignment God has given me, and it blesses me a bunch! Thanks, girlfriends!