A Call to Mentorship

I am forever thankful for the incredible woman I adopted as my mentor. Mentors are persons you know who are doing what you want to do, so you engage them in a relationship that will allow you to glean from their experience and skills that you may learn and grow from them. Usually such a relationship is consensual in an ask and accept manner but I feel ours was a God-bond that has enriched my life in an unforgettable way. I wrote about it a few years ago – here, https://simplyphenomenal.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/reflections-of-a-mentor/.

Recently, I have committed to participate as a mentor in a start-up mentoring program. I believe strongly in the premise of mentoring. I learned early in my adult life that you cannot grow from lateral relationships – people who act, think and communicate like you. You must seek out those who know more, do more and can help you to be more than what you are.

“It is so essential to surround yourself with individuals

who are ALREADY where you want to be.

Iron sharpens iron.” — Unknown

I must say I’m a little nervous about this new undertaking but I’m looking forward to the possibilities of impacting the life of a young woman as the Bible instructs sage women to do. I pray that the values and example she observes of me will be those that she desires to emulate in her own life.

Considering an analogy, I think about the spiritual mothers and sisters who have exemplified holy living, modesty, godliness, and Christian leadership in my life. What they have given me was mostly modeled, some taught. What was exceptional about the relationship with my mentor is that she took me along side of her, gave me opportunities to use the skills I had and to develop new ones. She added value to my life and made me feel like I was an asset … she enforced that belief in me.

“Tell me and I forget,

Teach me and I may remember,

INVOLVE me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

Even after so many years of different paths, we are still connected and I’m still so greatly blessed by her intrinsic, God-inspired nature to empower others to their highest potential.

It has been said God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

I am answering the call.

Pearls of Wisdom

Time, patience and the creative properties of nature create pearls. “Pearls represent the best in us.”

Pearls of wisdom must be the value and strength we gain from experiences of life, whether good or not so good.

One of my favorite Oprah Winfrey quotes says, “No experience is ever wasted. Everything has meaning.”

What matters is how we respond and grow from every experience.

When I think of a time of struggle for me, it was a time of transition. A time, I felt of exclusion, non-acceptance, displacement. It was so heavy for me, I felt I could not breathe, I felt a condition of emotional and spiritual atrophy. Prayer and the redeeming love of God restored the life I felt I had lost.  From that experience and others in life, I have grown stronger, wiser, more fulfilled.

Whatever the experience or circumstances, if it is a stumbling block, we must use it as a stepping stone. If it is a hurdle, we must use it as a trajectory. If it is a victory, we must use it as a catapult to blast us to even greater. Learning is a perpetual state of being. Every single day, every single moment must be a teachable one for ourselves and for others. We must teach not only in word or verse but most significantly by model and example. It is true what one does speaks louder than what one says.

If you love me, show me … Love is what love does.

Life lessons become pearls of wisdom that can be spoken but also must be lived out. These gems are personality traits and the values of character that enable an individual to be their best self, it represents the best of who they are.

The representation of one’s truest self always speaks louder than anything they say.

The wisdom we gain through life shapes who we are, “wisdom indeed is the principal thing”. When wisdom is not exercised, it brings about chaos. Therefore we must seek to apply wisdom in all things.

Wisdom does not consider a small measure of anything but it examines all angles and variables to be certain of the best action or response.

Pearls, whether linked or pooled together represent the illustrious rich beauty of who we are and what we are able to give, the best in us.