Mentoring

There have been a few parenting moves that we have done that I believe have had a huge impact on our kids.  I’ve thought about doing a little blog series about them a few times so today I chose one to share.  If you find these interesting please leave a comment and I’ll try to write about some of the others :)

One of my favorite ideas we’ve ever had was to match our kids up with mentors at a young age.  I really have no idea where the idea came from but I’m so glad we did it! When our kids were around 8-9 years old we started praying for God to lead us to someone to pair them up with. Here are a few things we prayed for:

• Similar values and faith as us
• Interests and activities similar to the child
• Time and availability to pour into our kids
• Biblical knowledge they could pass on
• Willing to build a strong bond that would last several years

Our goal was for our children to have an established relationship with someone God would lead us to that they could confide in.  We wanted this relationship to grow before teen years so when we became the dumb, overprotective parents, we would have hand picked someone to tell our kids how cool we actually are!  Well, something like that… Ha! ;)

Let me introduce to Kimbra, hand picked by God for Emma.  God led us to Kimbra many years ago and we are SO thankful.  She and Emma were made for each other.  And guess what….  when we asked her to mentor Emma she said she had been praying to find someone for that exact relationship for two years.  God is so cool like that!!

Kimbra began her mentoring relationship with Emma by simply having her over to bake.  They would cook together and little by little, she learned more about Emma and little by little Emma felt comfortable to open up.  Now, six years later, it is amazing to see how similar these two are and the love and bond that they have that will be forever.

Thank you, Kimbra for your love and time spent with Emma.

It’s looked a little different for the boys and their relationship with their mentors (as I’ve found most things do with boys!) but nonetheless, it’s been an amazing experience for them as well.

We’re so thankful for a God who loves us and leads us when we have no clue what we’re doing!  Parenting is tough stuff, Amen?!?!