Ten Reasons I’m Passionate About Mentoring

By Heidi McLaughlin –

It happened sixteen years ago. A young woman came to me and with tears in her eyes asked me if I would mentor her. I was startled. I didn’t know how to respond because I had never “officially” mentored anyone. Even though I said yes, I had no idea how this “mentoring thing” would evolve.

Over the next two years I experienced a journey of discovery and excitement in my spirit that I did not even know existed. I found that as women of influence, we are called to mentor younger women. It says in the bible that: “These older women must train the younger women to live quietly, to love their husbands and their children, and to be sensible and clean minded…(Titus 2:4 NLT).

I have discovered that when I am obedient to this command, I also grow spiritually and my own life is enriched and fulfilled.

Here are 10 reasons why I am passionate about mentoring.

1. Our great God is a creator and we are made in His image. We are fulfilled when we are also creating.  Mentoring gives me an opportunity to partner with God and create new life in another woman.
2. God is a God of order and He has a reason for asking us to do something. In the book of Titus it says that: “older women are to teach the younger women.” When I am part of God’s plan for the way He intended this world to work, my own life is enriched,
3. As I interact and minister to other women, I realize that the pain, confusion and failures I have experienced in my life, have given me wisdom that I must pass on to younger women.
4. I “get to” have an intimate relationship with another women.  We are created for intimacy and this type of close relationship fills that void in my own life.
5. I watch life transformation before my very eyes.
6. Younger women ask me questions for which I have no answers. This propels me to seek God more by intentionally digging deeper into scriptures, praying more and asking God for wisdom.
7. It teaches me to become honest and authentic.
8. Mentoring is a mirror for my own life.  When I realize that the woman I am mentoring watches me, it causes me to look at myself through the eyes of God and the other woman.
9. Mentoring teaches me what it means to become a godly woman of influence.
10. Mentoring gives hope, encouragement, love, and wisdom to other women in every stage of their lives. I am in awe that God wants to use me to be his hands, feet and voice that will accomplish His plans and purposes in other women.

Mentoring for me is like skiing free-style. Each woman is unique in her request for me to mentor her and I need to listen to her heart and her need. I have mentored women to help them with their marriages, to teach them out to grow in their spiritual life, how to overcome being a “child of divorce”, how to live a Christian life after being in a cult, how to survive with 5 small children. And so on and so on. Each woman’s story is precious and distinctive.

As women of influence it is up to us to look a younger woman in the eye and say, “How can I best help you in your journey?” Then let God help you forget the path. In the next article I will talk about questions we need to ask before we start a mentoring process.