“Mentor – An experienced, trusted advisor….”

Throughout most people’s lives, there will be numerous mentors; people we trust, people who mold us and shape us to the best of their abilities. I’ve had wonderful mentors, and I’ve had just the opposite of wonderful, people – mentors? – whose evil and destructiveness I almost didn’t escape with my life.

Our parents are our first mentors, guiding us through our childhood and teenage years. Parents can be be good mentors, showing us how to deal with life in a positive manner, or they can teach us how to live in ugly, disfunctional ways. Growing up, we – my siblings and I – were taught right from wrong, we were taught that actions have consequences, and we were taught discipline. (Yes, I rebelled against those teachings.)

Our teachers can be our mentors. I hope I never forget my first grade teacher, Mrs. Alexander, or my art teachers, Mrs. Homer in Sand Springs, OK, and Mr. Bond at OBU. They loved what they did, and they loved their students, drawing out the best in each of us. Jorge and Cynthia Fick, who taught me much about the elastic arts and life in general.

Some of the people whom I looked to as mentors hurt me; scarred (that’s scarred, not scared…) me, emotionally and physically. Eventually – I’m a slow learner! – I remembered the One Who wants to mentor me / us, and Who will never hurt me / us in any way. When we accept JESUS as our Saviour, we become a new person. At the moment of Salvation, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, becomes our Mentor and Protector for the rest of our lives.

“This means that anyone who belongs to CHRIST has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new Life has begun!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

Jesus becomes not only our Mentor, but He becomes the best friend you could possibly imagine, and better. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Happy is the house that shelters a friend,” and “A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere and before him I may think aloud. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.” Walter Winchell defines a friend as “one who walks in when others walk out.”

That’s exactly what JESUS does. He is the One that we can be completely honest and sincere with, because He will never disappoint. I can tell Him my deepest secrets, confess my most heinous sins, and He won’t reject me. He doesn’t judge me, He just Loves me. He is the One Who walks in, and stays in, when our human friends and family don’t. He is the One True Mentor, the One we can trust as the most experienced, most Trust-worthy, and Who will never advise us wrong. In 1855, a man by the name of Joseph M. Scriven wrote a song called “What A Friend We Have In Jesus.” The first verse goes like this:

1. What a friend we have in Jesus,
   All our sins and griefs to bear!
   What a privilege to carry
   Everything to God in prayer!
   Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
   Oh, what needless pain we bear,
   All because we do not carry
   Everything to God in prayer!

“Fight the Good Fight for the True Faith. Hold tightly to the Eternal Life to which GOD has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.” – 1 Timothy 6:12 NLT

My prayer for you today is that you have the Ultimate Mentor in your life!