Are mentors that necessary?

Finding my mentor

Until college, I never really had a mentor. I had a mom and a dad, but never a direct mentor. I had a mentor in college. My mentor was a missionary professor who became like a grandfather to me. He was a professor of missions at the college, which meant he was a professor who taught us about missions, missiology, and cross-cultural studies. Since missions was certainly one of my minors, I used to be tutored by a missions professor for many semesters. I at all times walked out of sophistication knowing greater than before, and more importantly, I walked out of sophistication feeling prefer it meant something to me.

Before my mentor, teachers never encouraged or supported me. I never felt secure going to them. With my mentor I used to be capable of speak about school, classes and my walk with Christ. He believed in me when nobody else did – and before I could imagine in myself. As a part of my mission program, certainly one of the activities was a missionary internship. Because of my mental health battles, I used to be nervous about traveling abroad, to place it mildly. Due to my compulsions, anxiety and depression, I used to be afraid of what was going to occur.

Encouragement from My Mentor

Despite my fears, my mission professor believed in me and encouraged me because the day of my departure approached. He and his wife even drove me to the airport and encouraged me throughout the ride. To say that I’m extremely grateful for each of them is an understatement. My mentor really helped me overcome an enormous hurdle by supporting me before, during and after my missionary internship. When they’d to depart me on the airport I used to be scared but they left me with the encouragement I needed.

Was I stressed on the airport and called them? Of course. Did I find yourself crying and calling my family? Of course. I used to be scared, but due to the encouragement and support of others, I used to be capable of board a plane and fly abroad. While it could be nice to say that every little thing went easily from then on, it didn’t. During my stay, I stayed with three missionary families, all of whom needed to fill out forms assessing how well I used to be doing. I struggled so much there, not to say countless mental health issues that I didn’t feel comfortable sharing with them.

I actually have received terrible reviews on each of those evaluation forms. I did every little thing they told me, but form after form, my mentor met with reviews that said that I had an excessive amount of emotional baggage or that I had “spiritual problems”. These “spiritual problems” were simply depression, anxiety and anorexia that I had struggled with for over a decade. Thanks to those negative grades, my mentor continued to imagine in me and I passed the category. Passing the category was a task in itself, but knowing that my mentor believed in me, even in spite of everything the negative things written about me on the forms, was the best encouragement of all.

Each of the three missionary families suggested that I used to be unfit for missionary work, but my mentor believed that I used to be. To say that the words of the mission families didn’t hurt can be a lie. In fact, they hurt a lot that I used to be in a mental health spiral for a very long time. They convinced me that I used to be unfit to be a missionary and that I had too many “problems.”

It’s funny how any of those missionary families could say I had too many problems, an excessive amount of emotional baggage, and too many spiritual problems—because don’t all of them? Don’t all of us have trauma, hurt, and pain prior to now? How lots of us have mental health issues and are afraid to inform others? Why are we afraid? We are afraid precisely because they’d call us “freaks” or someone with “spiritual problems.” We need more individuals who imagine in us despite our illnesses and problems, who support us irrespective of what, similar to my mentor.

A long-lasting friendship with my mentor

In the aftermath of my trip, my mentor and I stayed in contact, although he and his wife moved across the state to be together with his family. Even though we do not talk as much as we used to, I do know I can at all times turn to him when I would like help, guidance or advice. He never gets uninterested in my questions and was never uninterested in how over and over I submitted assignments too early. Since I had such a fantastic experience with a mentor, I might say that mentors are very necessary. Granted, not all mentors can be as supportive and inspiring as my mentor, but there are some great mentors on the market – you simply need to seek out them.

While I understand that many individuals have had bad experiences with mentors, we’d like to know that not all mentors are negative. In the case of my mentor, he was not assigned to me, nor did anyone tell me at some point that he was my mentor. Instead, he grew as much as be my mentor as I attended his classes and relied on him for his knowledge of the sector I used to be studying. So my advice is to seek out your individual mentor and let it flow naturally. No one desires to be forced to mentor someone, but over time, the correct person can develop into the right mentor for you.

Mentors are very necessary because they’re clever and competent. My mentor was a university professor at my college, but your mentor might not be a professor. Your mentor might be your mom, dad, grandma or grandpa. Even outside the family, you’ll find a fantastic mentor with spiritual/life advice. This could possibly be your counselor, therapist or youth leader. When we stop on the lookout for a particular mentor, then we are going to find him. Ask God for His help and guidance as you are attempting to seek out a mentor.

By far an important a part of a mentor is his relationship with God. If they have no idea God, it’s best to decide on one other mentor. If you would like a mentor, it ought to be someone who loves God with all their heart, mind, and soul. A mentor without Jesus won’t know lead you in a way that glorifies God. However, if you have got a mentor who loves Jesus and follows Him faithfully, it’s going to overflow of their lives and provides glory to God. In time, you might develop into a mentor to someone and also you too will have the option to share the love of Christ in your actions, just as my mentor did in my life.

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