Mentors and Models
Happy New Year!!! I hope you had a meaningful Advent and joyful Christmas Season!
This past week I was listening to a podcast by Pete Scazzero (Goals Most Leaders Overlook Part 1 at Emotionally Healthy Discipleship) and he was talking about the need to have mentors. Christian mentors are people who we are in relationship with who counsel, advise, and model following God to us. I don't have one mentor but rather many different people who fulfill this role in my life. This past week, I discovered models for following God through both the Word and stone.
First, God's Word: One of my habits that I am implementing in 2019 is reading a One Year Bible. As I was reading Genesis, a surprising model stood out to me: Isaac. Isaac is the patriarch who I know the least about. Yes, he is mentioned when we talk of "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" but Scripture says so much less about him than about his father, Abraham, or son, Jacob. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered a couple of things about Isaac that I want to imitate:
1) Genesis 24:63 Right before Isaac first sees his future wife, we are told "One evening as [Isaac] was walking and meditating in the fields...." Isaac took time in nature to reflect. We don't know what he was meditating on since Scripture was not yet written but he is a model of being with God in creation and giving fixed attention to the things that matter. This is something I want to include in my life with God.
2) Genesis 25:19 Once Isaac and Rebekah are married. we are told, "Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children." Isaac went to God with what troubled him and his wife. He earnestly interceded for Rebekah. Although intercession is a regular practice of mine, I am always encouraged when I see it modeled by others. Isaac's example encourages me to plead with God in situations I have no control over.
Second, stone: How did a rock speak to me? Well, when I was on a retreat at St. Benedict's Retreat and Conference Center last weekend, a statue of Mary spoke to me of surrender to God. It is the posture of the sculpture that has stayed with me. Mary has her arms down by her side with her open palms facing forward. I can almost hear her saying, "be it to me as you have said" (my paraphrase of Luke 1:38). The posture of openness to welcome whatever God will do in her life is something that I want to mirror.
Isaac and Mary - models of walking with God - are just two of the many people we find in Scripture, through books, and in our daily lives who can serve as mentors to us as we seek to follow Jesus.
My prayer for you is that the Lord will provide the kinds of mentors and models you need in your life right now. My encouragement to you is to follow Mary in her openness to God's will.
in Christ,
Tracy
This past week I was listening to a podcast by Pete Scazzero (Goals Most Leaders Overlook Part 1 at Emotionally Healthy Discipleship) and he was talking about the need to have mentors. Christian mentors are people who we are in relationship with who counsel, advise, and model following God to us. I don't have one mentor but rather many different people who fulfill this role in my life. This past week, I discovered models for following God through both the Word and stone.
First, God's Word: One of my habits that I am implementing in 2019 is reading a One Year Bible. As I was reading Genesis, a surprising model stood out to me: Isaac. Isaac is the patriarch who I know the least about. Yes, he is mentioned when we talk of "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" but Scripture says so much less about him than about his father, Abraham, or son, Jacob. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered a couple of things about Isaac that I want to imitate:
1) Genesis 24:63 Right before Isaac first sees his future wife, we are told "One evening as [Isaac] was walking and meditating in the fields...." Isaac took time in nature to reflect. We don't know what he was meditating on since Scripture was not yet written but he is a model of being with God in creation and giving fixed attention to the things that matter. This is something I want to include in my life with God.
2) Genesis 25:19 Once Isaac and Rebekah are married. we are told, "Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children." Isaac went to God with what troubled him and his wife. He earnestly interceded for Rebekah. Although intercession is a regular practice of mine, I am always encouraged when I see it modeled by others. Isaac's example encourages me to plead with God in situations I have no control over.
Second, stone: How did a rock speak to me? Well, when I was on a retreat at St. Benedict's Retreat and Conference Center last weekend, a statue of Mary spoke to me of surrender to God. It is the posture of the sculpture that has stayed with me. Mary has her arms down by her side with her open palms facing forward. I can almost hear her saying, "be it to me as you have said" (my paraphrase of Luke 1:38). The posture of openness to welcome whatever God will do in her life is something that I want to mirror.
Isaac and Mary - models of walking with God - are just two of the many people we find in Scripture, through books, and in our daily lives who can serve as mentors to us as we seek to follow Jesus.
My prayer for you is that the Lord will provide the kinds of mentors and models you need in your life right now. My encouragement to you is to follow Mary in her openness to God's will.
in Christ,
Tracy
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