PAYING IT FOWARD

I get several opportunities to train mentors, something I truly appreciate. Every time I stand in front of a team of mentors three quotes by Myles Munroe find their way into my session;

“The greatest act of leadership is mentoring”. No matter how much you may learn, achieve, accumulate, or accomplish, if it all dies with you, then you are a generational failure”

“The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation.”

“Jesus did not build buildings he build people”

Mentoring calls for commitment to impacting the next generation, ensuring that our dreams are carried forward as opposed to dying with us. It also calls for having our focus on people as opposed to ‘buildings’ or ‘objects’.  This is not easy in a world where success is measured by how much we achieve, accumulate or accomplish and everyone seems to be in a race to outdo the other based on these parameters. Another reason why mentoring doesn’t come easy is because it requires you to take love for people to a level where you share your life with them. I see this very well put by Paul in 1Thess 2:8; ‘Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us’. When you are a mentor your life becomes the mirror through which your mentees examine their own lives.

However, the benefits of mentoring far outweigh the challenges. Words cannot be enough to express the fulfillment that comes with mentorship. I can wake up to an early morning mentoring session that no one will pay a coin for and still feel motivated enough to do it again the following morning. Imagine how fulfilled Barnabas was to see who Paul, his mentee, became in the ministry?  Same applies to Paul on seeing Timothy, his son in the faith, blossom. Just seeing your mentee unleash their full potential is enough reason to downplay any constraints that comes with it. Like my mentor once told me, ‘Die empty’. Do not let all that knowledge, experience, skills and wisdom end with you-PAY IT FORWARD!

Reflection

‘Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us’-1 Thess 2:8

Mary Kamore is the Lead Consultant M_OliveS Mentors