Show Up. Speak Truth. Love God.
Every Mentor has three jobs:
Show Up
Showing up is the most important thing you can do as a mentor. When you show up with a smile on your face, you are communicating something to your Forerunner. You are showing them that they are worth your time. You are telling them that they are worth hanging out with. You are instilling value in their life. When a Forerunner sees their mentor walk in the door, he thinks to himself “My mentor came to see me. I am the only reason why he came today. I must mean something to him.” Our kids are not mature enough to verbalize that, but that is what they are feeling.
How do you build any successful relationship? You spend time with that person. You are with them. You learn new things about them and you experience life with them. You make them feel important. You make them feel valued. And you do that by showing up.
Speak Truth
Our desire is for our mentors to speak truth into the lives of our Forerunners. We want our mentors to encourage our Forerunners with every word that comes out of their mouth. It is said that to ‘encourage’ someone was to open up their chest and to insert courage. We can do that with the words we speak over our Forerunners.
“I can’t do it.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“Why can’t you be more like…”
“I’m not smart enough.”
“I don’t matter.”
“You’re a bad kid.”
Whether from the devil or from their environment, those are just some of the lies that our kids hear often. We have the opportunity to combat those lies. We help our Forerunners see themselves how the Lord sees them by speaking the following truth to them:
“You have what it takes to succeed.”
“I love you and I’m proud of you.”
“I like you for you, not for what you do.”
“You are a Man of God. A history maker and a world changer.”
“You matter to me.”
“You have a good heart.”
“I believe in you.”
When our Forerunners see us coming, we want them to think, “I love when my mentor shows up because I always feel better after we talk. I know that he is for me and in my corner. I know he loves me for me.”
We do not want them to think, “Oh great. Here comes my mentor. He’s going to tell me how I need to do better at school, act better at home, and dress nicer. Sometimes I feel like I’m his project and he’s trying to fix me.”
Our words matter. Our tone matters. Our facial expressions and body language matter. You can insert courage into the hearts of our Forerunners every time you show up by speaking truth that displaces lies from the enemy.
If our kids are doing one hundred things wrong and one thing right, focus on that one thing. Be positive. Don’t worry about fixing their circumstances. Just focus on loving them. God will take care of the rest in his perfect timing.
Love God
Having an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important part of being a mentor. As a mentor, you cannot give away what you don’t have. More than anything, we want our Forerunners to love Jesus Christ with all of their hearts. They will learn how to do that by emulating you.
Don’t get me wrong. We want our Forerunners to learn as much as they can from you. Some things they might learn from you might include:
Working hard
How to succeed educationally
Being kind
How to deal with conflict
Being a supportive husband and father
How to cook
Managing your finances
How to hunt
The skills listed above are good things, but they are not the most important things. The most important thing is knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as King of your life and growing in intimate relationship with Him. An apple tree produces apples. An orange tree produces oranges. You will produce your character. If we want our Forerunners to be humble, we first must be humble. If we want them to be kind, we first must be kind.
We focus on building a deep, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ in each one of our mentors. You cannot give what you don’t have and we want our mentors to be overflowing with the character of Jesus Christ. The most important example a mentor can show his Forerunner is his own intimate walk with Christ.We are not here to produce good men. We are here to produce whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ.
We want to do everything we can to help you in your own personal walk with Christ. We are here for you and want to serve you in whatever capacity we can. We encourage you to get into community and a church home where your spiritual walk can be nourished. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to serve you in that way.