Mentoring

Recently I've been thinking about my Cousin's (the one with MS) 9 year old son Jordan and how he doesn't have any good male role models in his life and thinking about maybe mentoring him. My problem is I honestly don't feel like I'm really cut out for the challenge. How can I can I teach a lttle boy what it takes to be a man when i don't consider myself a man yet? Or even what being a man even means.
Does anyone have experience and/or advice on how to be a mentor?

People get hung up on the word and what it is supposed to mean. If you are mentoring someone, just be yourself. If you try to act a certain way that is not you, things go badly. When a Christian does mentoring it just mean you show the person what a Christian is by your actions. It is the same with just being an every day mentor. Just be who you are and you will help the person.

Rickster wrote:Recently I've been thinking about my Cousin's (the one with MS) 9 year old son Jordan and how he doesn't have any good male role models in his life and thinking about maybe mentoring him. My problem is I honestly don't feel like I'm really cut out for the challenge. How can I can I teach a lttle boy what it takes to be a man when i don't consider myself a man yet? Or even what being a man even means.
Does anyone have experience and/or advice on how to be a mentor?

Rickster, I see by your profile that you are 29. At what age would you consider yoruself a man? What life experience do you think you need to have to be considered a man? Must you walk a path and be prodded by pain sticks (Klingon) or go through some other strange ritual?

I agree with Orvette. If you call yourself a Christian, and truly follwo the ways of the Lord, then you are well-equipped to be a mentor. They will know you by yoru actions. Show this young man how a Christian lives, and just be your Christian self.

Yeah even though even though I'm 29 in a lot of way I still feel like I'm 14 and I've even been working on a list of things that I need to do to make me feel more like an adult. I guess I'll start small with mentoring Jordan and do fun stuff like the movies batting cage bowling etc. and see where it goes from there

Rickster wrote:Yeah even though even though I'm 29 in a lot of way I still feel like I'm 14 and I've even been working on a list of things that I need to do to make me feel more like an adult. I guess I'll start small with mentoring Jordan and do fun stuff like the movies batting cage bowling etc. and see where it goes from there

My middle school pastor, a good dear friend, is 40, and acts like at middle schooler himself. Which makes him perfect for the position. But he's got this strange ability to turn that on and off, so that when he's around a group of adults (like our bi-weekly small group), he is just a mature (but still goofy) adult. When he's around kids, he's just one of them in a bigger body.

Find a balance in keeping young, even while maturing.

I think we all kind of have a "mental age" that we stay at in our life. I feel like I'm about 21 or so mentally. I have a friend who I think is an old man mentally. Another friend who (most of the time) I'd think he's in the junior high range. Just something I've thought over the years.

Have you read Wild at Heart by John Eldredge? He takes a good look at being a 'man's man' but still living a Godly life. Also takes a lot of inspiration from movies (things like Gladiator and Braveheart rather than geeky ones, but you might be able to get some inspiration for getting the message out of movies you can watch with your cousin's boy )

UKSteve wrote:Have you read Wild at Heart by John Eldredge? He takes a good look at being a 'man's man' but still living a Godly life. Also takes a lot of inspiration from movies (things like Gladiator and Braveheart rather than geeky ones, but you might be able to get some inspiration for getting the message out of movies you can watch with your cousin's boy )

If you do read Elridge's books I'd suggest taking it with a grain of salt. What I've read of his stuff seems to focus on the sterotypical "manly stuff".

I did a study with a group at the chapel on base back in Korea with Fathered By God, and durin' the video sessions all I could think about was how it seemed like an excuse to sit around and talk about how manly they were on camera. Then they sudenly realized they were "leading" a Bible study and had to throw something about God in at the tail end to make it work.

Anyway, that's just my 2 cents on him.


As far as mentoring someone, all I can say is be honest, and most importantly let Christ's love shine through you to not only him but everyone around you.