Mentoring is a hot concept in our culture today. It exists in sports, school, career, the arts.

People naturally gravitate toward someone who is doing what they want to do, or someone they want to be like.  A relationship with an admired person is very impactful.

Relationship + Specific Experience = Impact

Beyond telling someone how to do something, a mentor chooses to foster growth in someone else.  This requires investment of time and self. A meaningful relationship is built by:

1. Sharing personal experience of both failures and successes
2. Providing tips and suggestions
3. Warning of pitfalls and dangers
4. Encouraging activities/goals for further development
5. Living an example

God knits us all with certain talents, dreams and personalities. Just as God used many people from many walks of life to record His truth in the Bible, He still uses many people in all areas of life.  A Christ-follower's highest goal is to glorify God and impact her community for Christ.  So, stealing a line from Toby Mac, we have both "a head full of dreams and a heart full of God".

How does this affect mentoring? Let's call it perspective selection. Teachers, bosses, and coaches are seldom hand-picked by their students. Mentoring presents this opportunity. Use it very purposely.  Believers should only be mentored by other believers.  A uniting agreement that Jesus is Lord and God's Word is the measure for all counsel. This is a shared perspective of life.

However, for those who are not believers, faith isn't a deal-breaker. This means your Christian perspective can impact any person you mentor. Common interests could be athletics, music, art, writing, business - Christ-likeness is needed in all of these arenas. This is how communities change.  So the new equation for Christians in mentorship (both mentor and mentee) is:

Relationship + Specific Experience + Godly Perspective = Godly Impact

Jesus said we would be known by our fruit (see Matthew Ch. 7). Read Galatians 5:16-26.  Here, you will find descriptions of how the sinful nature is displayed and how the fruit of God's Spirit is displayed.  Use God's word as a guide to identify people who exhibit fruit in their lives.  Use God's word as criteria for self-examination. Rely on prayer for discernment, specifically asking God to direct you in any mentorship relationship, and He'll always lead you in the right direction.

Jeanette Edgar is married to her husband, Randy, of 15 years and a mother of three school-age children. She has been a Christian since childhood, but in the last two years has left the marketing profession to become a trained life coach and pursue writing and speaking. Passions include reading, traveling, hiking, scrapbooking, and pushing past complacency to grow in her walk with the Lord.