In her powerful book Mentoring for All Seasons,
Janet Thompson writes of the value of mentoring through all seasons of life,
including the marriage season.
I was thrilled to learn Janet recommends my book
We All Married Idiots as a resource for mentoring marriages.
If you desire your life and marriage to grow into the likeness of Christ,
give Mentoring for All Seasons a read.
Thank you Janet Thompson for writing life-changing books
and agreeing to share words straight from your heart.
"That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.—Genesis 2:24
As women, we’re continually coming out
of one life season and going into the next. You may have experienced the
blessing of having a mentor in the changing seasons of your life, or long for a
mentor. Those with experience in a season can reach out and offer counsel,
support, prayer, and God’s wisdom. Mentoring is that easy.
Some
women have had the blessing of the same mentor from newlywed years to seasoned
married years, and others have found mentors for specific phases of the
marriage season.
Newlywed to 50+ Years Mentoring
Maybe
you looked at this heading and thought: Needs
are different for newlyweds than couples married twenty-five or fifty years. True.
The specific details will differ, but the basic truths keeping a marriage on
solid ground remain the same regardless of years together.
The
marriage season covers a wide spectrum, but the principles of mentoring remain
the same because God’s Word regarding marriage, communication, finances, family
. . . never changes . . . and God’s Word is the foundation for every mentoring
relationship, which is always two way.
I
once heard a mentor say her mentee was a newlywed, and since she herself had
been married twenty-five years, she expected to be sharing tips about married
life with her mentee. But with a wink, she said the mentee taught her a few
things about putting a “kick” back into her own marriage!
Marital Problems
Marriage
is between two imperfect people, who
will always disappoint and
disillusion each other unless they keep perfect
Jesus at the center of their relationship. That might sound like a bold
statement, and certainly many Christian marriages fail, probably because they
didn’t keep Jesus at the center of every
decision, discussion, and disagreement.
Many
issues subject a couple to divisive onslaughts attacking a marriage: finances,
parenting, jealousy, in-laws, personalities, loneliness, illness, outside
attractions, work . . . daily life. Statistics of crumbling marriages—even
among Christians—indicate Satan is winning the spiritual battle in many homes
because couples haven’t armed themselves with the only effective offensive
weapon—the sword of the Spirit—the Word of God.
How many marriages might elude divorce
if spouses had mentors praying for and with them, teaching them how to study
their Bibles daily, and showing them how to put God back on the throne in their
marriage and family?
Mentoring
for All Seasons
In Mentoring
for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s
Faithfulness, sixty-five women share their
mentor or mentee testimonies, along with my own personal experiences, helpful
tips for mentors and mentees will guide women in how to connect and nurture
each other in mentoring relationships, as a mentor or a mentee from tweens to twilight years. There are
Scriptures for each season to help guide the discussion to God’s Word.
Mentoring
for all Seasons is a reference, application, and coaching tool for a mentor or mentee
traversing life’s journey together as
Titus 2:3-5 instructs us to do.
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be
reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine,
but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the
younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to
be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject
to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
Mentors don’t have all the answers, but
God does!
Excerpts from Mentoring for All Seasons used with
permission of Leafwood Publishers.
Janet Thompson is an
international speaker, freelance editor, and award-winning author of nineteen books including her latest, Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and
God’s Faithfulness, available at all Christian bookstores, online book
stores, Amazon, and signed by Janet
at her website store, where you can see
more of her books.
She is also
the founder of Woman to Woman
Mentoring
and About His Work
Ministries.
Janet and her husband
Dave relocated their empty nest from Southern California to the rural mountains
of Idaho, where Janet writes and they love watching the deer frolic in their
yard.
Sign up for Janet’s Monday Morning Blog and
online newsletter at womantowomanmentoring.com. You can also
visit Janet at:
https://twitter.com/AHWministries
Instagram:
Janetahw"
Thanks for being my guest blogger, Janet.
Mentoring and being mentored both bring splashes of serenity to our souls!
Enjoy your mentoring journey and buy Janet's book!
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I would love hearing from you! Thanks for sharing!