Hey Mama Monday: Mama, Mentor Me

In the early years of homeschooling, I had some wonderful mentors in my local homeschool group, true women of God who studied Him and revealed His life through their homeschooling. Before I knew it, or was even ready, I was the mentor to others although I never felt capable or qualified. It is an extension of the Scripture about older women teaching the younger women in Titus 2:3-5.

They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.

According to this passage, a woman mentor should. . .

• Teach what is good (virtuous, noble, worthy).
• Train the younger women to love their husbands (not just tolerate or control them).
• Train the younger women to love their children (laying aside selfishness and everything that hinders love).
• To be self-controlled (putting yourself under God’s control).
• To be pure (watch your eyes, ears, and mouth and pursue righteousness).
• To be working at home (our primary profession is our family while adding side jobs as necessary as outlined in Proverbs 31).
• To be kind (not harsh or angry, but actively loving with kindness and mercy as God does. Ask God to forgive you and give you a soft answer and servant’s heart).
• To be submissive to their husbands (having a meek and gentle spirit and willing to work towards unity, which in the sight of God is of great price).

WHY? It is that the Word of God would not be reviled (hated, loathed, detested). If you are being taught anything other than the pure Word of God, it may cause you to detest the Truth. If you are teaching anything other than the whole Scripture, you may be causing others to detest the Truth. We must be very careful how we live, for reverence and love for the truth found in the Word of God is at stake.

So, mentoring consists of living a Godly life and being around others that need to see what that looks like even if you feel like you don’t have it all together. It’s not about you being great; it’s about allowing others to see your weaknesses as a representation of the power of God flowing through you and holding you together. That happens by being nourished by the Word of God. Because only His Word, not ours, can change anything in anyone. When He shares His Word with you, it is your responsibility to share it with others, especially members of your own household.

Whether you have a mentor or not, you have the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus left with us to point us to Christ, to lead us into all Truth, to comfort us, and to let us know we are never, ever alone. If you are lacking a physical mentor in your life, you have the very counsel of God to direct you. His words are far more weighty and life changing than any earthly mentor. Hold tight to His Word!

Deborah Wuehler is the Senior Editor and Director of Production here at The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. She would say she is a very ordinary homeschool mom–with one exception: she has an extra-ordinary God Who provides all she needs for life and homeschooling. She has eight children aged 11 to 29. Deborah’s mission is this: to point other homeschoolers to the Lord in all they do, think, and feel—and to confirm that they, too, can find everything they need for life, godliness–and homeschooling–in their knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:3, 4).