Day Forty-Seven

FIND A MENTOR

Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

—PROVERBS 13:20 NIV

Finding a mentor seems like a scary thought, but it’s really not. There isn’t some weird mentor ceremony with pins and smoke machines and lifelong commitments. It really doesn’t have to be that intense.

But it takes bravery to put yourself out there and ask someone to give you some of his or her wisdom. People are busy these days. I know I am. I bet you are too.

Are you brave enough to ask someone?

Just to calm your fears a little, here is what asking for a mentor does not look like: you walking up to someone and saying, “You are my mentor” or “God told me that you are my mentor.”

No. Please, no.

I’ll make it really simple for you. Find someone you respect in your life who is two or three steps ahead of you, someone you can go to dinner with and ask the hard questions.

You don’t have to label someone a mentor for that person to be mentoring you. It doesn’t have to be one single person who becomes your guru. And it doesn’t have to be a biweekly commitment.

You can have multiple mentors for different areas of your life. A work mentor. A family mentor. A calling mentor.

It takes bravery to put yourself out there and ask someone to give you some of his or her wisdom.

Don’t shy away from asking because you feel like you’ll be a burden.

I’ve spent a lot of my adult life mentoring college students, and I absolutely love it. During my seasons of mentoring and discipling and hanging out with young adults on a regular basis, I was the happiest, most fulfilled Annie ever.

You will reap crazy benefits from inviting mentors into your life, but so will they. Being used by God in that way is an honor.

So be brave. Ask. Don’t build it up into a huge thing. Don’t ask one person to be your guru. But do invite people in and learn from their wisdom.

BE BRAVE: Invite an older, wiser person to grab coffee with you this week.