Sunday was one of those days that I woke up thinking such and such was going to happen, but by the time I went to bed that night, nothing I’d planned happened. Sometimes that can be frustrating, but this particular day I tried to relax and enjoy what God had in store for me instead.
One of the biggest blessings that God gave me in that day was the opportunity for uninterrupted conversation with a woman that is further down the road than I. You see, parenting has a lot challenges, but adoption comes with some extra challenges. To add on top of that, so does parenting a child with special needs. If you had not caught on before this, my youngest daughter was adopted from Russia and she has special needs. Well this Mama that I “just happened” to sit next to in church has been at this journey with adopted special needs children way longer than I. I had been meaning to introduce myself to her for quite awhile, but this prompted me to actually do it. Well I couldn’t have been more blessed. Sometimes it just helps to be able to talk with older women–to be able to hear where you’re doing well, where you need work and to be able to ask questions of someone who can relate to your world. I guess you would call that mentoring.
A few summers back, I had the privilege of hanging out with a group of young moms every Tuesday morning while we read through a book together. Towards the end of our time together, we discussed how each one of us desperately wants to be mentored, but yet mentoring is lacking in our society today. One of the conclusions we came to is that if you want to be mentored by someone specific then you need to be bold enough to ask. It can’t be assumed that they are too busy or wait around for a mentor to approach you. Just ask.
Mentoring is going to look different for every person. Maybe for you, a weekly time to do Biblestudy together is what is needed. Maybe meeting up for coffee when you can squeeze it into your busy schedule is enough. Some women can have that need met by situations like MOPS or Mom2Mom.
Personally, I’m not one for forced weekly meetings. I’ve found that being mentored or doing the mentoring has been the most successful when we just “do life” together. I prefer to just hang out and let natural conversations flow out of that time together. I want to encourage you that if you see someone out there who you’d like to learn more from then ask if you can hang out. Go to a craft show together, see if they want to go grocery shopping with you, or invite them over for dinner. If you know that person is going to be at an event then purposely sit by them so natural conversation can happen. Don’t stalk them…just be creative in finding ways to hear from them. Be bold, Mama.
If you are one of those women that had that conversation with me a few summers back, what have you done about it? Have you been bold? Has life gotten in the way? Is there someone in your life that you can glean from further down the road? I’m not saying that woman has to be decades older with great grandchildren under her belt. Just someone you can relate to and has already been there and done that. I’ll say it again, be bold, Mama. I promise you’ll be blessed. I am always grateful for those moments God gives me to glean bits of wisdom from someone older and wiser. It refreshes my soul and helps me to press on in my journey of motherhood. Be bold, Mama!
