The Value of a Mentor

No one sets out to fail.  But there are countless stories about youth and adults who fell through the cracks of society, got in over their heads, or went down a wrong path. Many of those stories can be traced back to poor decisions, a lack of preparation, or unwise advice. And some might have been avoided if they had been mentored.

We all need direction -- someone to guide, encourage, and hold us accountable. A mentor is someone willing to invest time in another person's future well being.  A role model committed to another individual's success.

Think back. Who invested time in your life and what difference did it make? Can you remember a teacher who went beyond his or her job description to prepare you for college? Or perhaps it was a coach who prepared you to compete with champions. Oftentimes, it's a parent or relative who is also serving as your mentor. But all of the time, it's some caring individual who has volunteered time and resources on our behalf.

So much of our day-to-day support is directly related to having good mentors. Here's a sample list of areas of support presented by The National Mentoring Partnership:

Support for education

• Mentors help keep students in school.
• Students who meet regularly with their mentors are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37% less likely to skip a class.
• Mentors help with homework and can improve their mentees’ academic skills.

Support with day-to-day living

• Mentors help improve a young person's self-esteem.
• Youth who meet regularly with their mentors are 46% less likely than their peers to start using illegal drugs and 27% less likely to start drinking.
• About 40% of a teenager's waking hours are spent without companionship or supervision. Mentors provide teens with a valuable place to spend free time.
• Mentors teach young people how to relate well to all kinds of people and help them strengthen communication skills.

Support in the workplace

• Mentors help young people set career goals and start taking steps to realize them.
• Mentors can use their personal contacts to help young people meet industry professionals, find internships and locate job possibilities.
• Mentors introduce young people to professional resources and organizations they may not know.
• Mentors can help their mentees learn how to seek and keep jobs.

As stated above, there's a myriad of ways mentoring can help people. The important thing is to find a mentor and/or be a mentor to someone else. In honor of this month being National Mentoring Month, make that decision today.


*http://www.mentoring.org/about_mentor/value_of_mentoring

11 Tips For Setting Goals And Achieving Them

1) Pray and ask God to direct you in setting goals within His will. Sanctioned by His peace, resolve to set goals and achieve them.

2) Start by brainstorming your dreams, passions, and life's mission statement. What jobs would you do for free? What stirs you to action? What motivates you to persevere when the going gets tough?

3) Next, put pen to paper and record the results from your brainstorming session. Be specific. Document all thoughts, emotions and pictures just like you initially saw and felt them.

4) Prioritize your list. Do a thorough assessment of your "now" versus your "down the road" priorities.

5) Inventory your list of resources. Play the role of an objective investigator by determining your existing and potential assets. Be honest with yourself. Avoid exaggerating, denying the truth, or minimizing your resources.

6) Develop a common sense action plan based on your priorities. Think about what preparatory actions need to take place before your goals can be achieved. Keep your plan sequential.

7) Create a realistic timeline with dates and deadlines based on your action plan. Consider the amount of time needed to acquire essential resources.

8) Where appropriate, communicate with those affected by your goals. Respectfully give them time to adjust to major changes that involve them. Be sensitive. Pray that God confirms His will in their hearts too.

9) Leave no room for anxiety and choose to be patient.

10)  Refuse to be discouraged by set backs.

11) Persevere until the goal is achieved.

"Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." - 1 Thess. 5:24

Are You in God's Timing for the New Year?

Everyone is time-conscious as we transition between 2013 and 2014. A new year symbolizes the end and start of things. What we did in 2013 is for the record books or the pages of a diary. What we have yet to do, and what we can carry over from 2013, will emerge in 2014.  We will survey the past year, make resolutions, and hope for better.

But what if we’re actually a few months behind in a civil year that’s already started and too early for a biblical new year? The Gregorian calendar isn’t God’s calendar; it’s an adaption of a calendar designed by an Italian doctor and astronomer, Luigi Lilio. The Gregorian calendar was named however, after Pope Gregory XIII. Spain, Portugal and Poland were the first countries to adopt the calendar in 1582.

The civil calendar we use isn’t God’s lunar calendar. On the Jewish calendar, it’s 5774. The civil year began at sundown on Sept. 4, 2013 at Rosh Hashanah. The biblical year begins at sunset on April 14, 2014 on Passover. (Hebrew4Christians.com discusses the Jewish calendar extensively and cites biblical references here and here.)

Many believers who follow Jesus may shrug off the Hebraic calendar because they’re wary of slipping into legalism. But if we follow a civil calendar with Roman roots,  surely there are truths we can learn from God’s calendar with its Hebraic roots? What if God’s calendar aligns us with His transcendent timing, whether we are Jew or Gentile? What if God moves us forward in destiny through His calendar, and restores us when we feel worn-down by the world? What if God uses His calendar to prepare us for times of repentance, rest and celebration? What if there’s much to learn because Jesus followed the appointed times?

Dr. Robert D. Heidler writes wonderfully on this subject in his book, The Messianic Church Arising!: Restoring the Church to Our Covenant Roots. This book is a must-have for every Christian’s library. Dr. Heidler writes of God’s timetable:

As I began to study the feasts, I discovered that the biblical feasts were part of a cycle of life that actually made up a biblical calendar. They were not holidays or Jewish rituals. God called them His “appointed times.” In a very real sense, these feasts are “appointments” with God: times set by God to meet with His people.

This New Year’s is a perfect opportunity to ask God for revelation about His appointed times. He may want us to draw more from 2013 than remembering the year’s top stories and watching the ball drop in Times Square. He also may have more in store for us in 2014 than we expect – if we step into His heavenly timing.