Thankful Thursdays- 1/10/13 - Mentors

Today I am thankful for mentors. 

mentor |ˈmenˌtôr, -tər|nounan experienced and trusted adviser: he was her friend and mentor until his death in 1915.


  While I have had a lot of outstanding mentors during my life, recently I have been thinking about how grateful I am for my Home schooling mentors. We have been at this grand adventure of educating at home for quite a few years. When we were just starting, a dear friend suggested that I read a book that had helped her tremendously. It helped me tremendously as well. It reminded me that we were choosing to educate differently, that we wanted the best that God could help us provide for our daughters. The book ? "A Charlotte Mason Companion" by Karen Andreola. Soon after I found another book that also helped mentor me, "Beyond Survival: A Guide to Abundant-Life Homeschooling" by Diana Waring.
  These two books mentored me through the words of these two precious ladies. They each shared the joys and struggles of being a home schooling family. While I have been blessed to have many 'in-person' home schooling mentors, these two women spoke to my heart in ways no one else did. They encouraged me to not give up, to do what God had called us to do, and to do it with JOY! 
  Today there are blogs, online support groups, online classes and a whole host of things that I didn't know about (or that weren't even around yet) when we began this journey. While I find many of these tools useful, even helpful, they do not replace having mentors (both in person and through books.)
  About two years ago I was blessed to actually meet one of these two dear book-writing mentors of mine, Diana Waring, at a conference. How exciting to just have a few minutes to tell her how much her words had blessed us. Imagine my joy when last year...she moved to our town. Now Diana is not just a mentor, she is a dear friend.
  If you don't yet have a mentor, pray for one, look for one, beseech God to bring one into your life. Then one day, you can be a mentor to someone else. With the comfort you receive, you can comfort others. Mentors give of themselves in order to help others succeed.
  If you're an experienced (home schooler, seamstress, gardener, taxidermist, carpenter, lawyer, etc), why not consider who YOU can be a mentor for. One day, they'll thank you for it!