Thursday, October 20, 2011

Role call: What Makes a Good Mentor


How do you choose a role model? Ok, I admit, I'm not an expert on this subject. I've learned only a snippet of what I will learn, but here's what I know/have been taught.

What a mentor needs to be

  • A mentor needs to share your beliefs.
            How can you have someone help guide you and steer you in the right path, when you don't believe the same things? It only makes sense to have someone who puts their faith where you do. It makes a world of difference (Trust me, I know)


  • A mentor needs to be someone you can trust. 
            I'm not going to ask you to begin telling this person everything that's on your mind. (Atleast, not right off the bat) You need to be comfortable with the person. If you see someone you think would make a good mentor, get to know them. See them in action. Figure out whether or not you can trust that individual.

  • A mentor should be someone older than you are.
           I almost didn't put this section in here because it's so very obvious to me why some you're modelling your life after needs to be older. It may not be so obvious to you. The reason you should find someone older? They've been where you are. They get it. 

  • A mentor needs to be there when need something.
            They don't need to be there to get you a cup of water or something like that. Just being on the other end of the phone or email or text to pray for you, give you advice, that sorta thing. For example, the other day, this girl who I love and admire had been emailing me. We had been giving each other things to pray about and such, when I received an email that made my day. She sent me a simple, yet wonderful prayer over email, just asking God to be near me that day. I started crying! Little things like that can make a big impact.

I'm sure there's more that a mentor needs to be, but this is all I can think of at the moment. As I come up with more, I'll be sure to add to this post.

This series will be continued an upcoming post...

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