Have you ever had a mentor? What was the greatest lesson you learned from him or her?
NO father around doesn’t mean no mentor.
With out a dad near by most of my life left me craving any older male input. T he lack of which left me frustrated and mostly depressed and I would hide in my silent introverted closet.
There where a few trys from men at churches we went to, but looking back it may not have been me they where interested in. The youth group leader was sorta close but after I went away one summer he got a divorce from his wife, not a good role model. There was a time when one older man took me surf fishing,I ‘m not sure what happened but that was just once.
However, there where some mentors after 17 that mentored well. I was sent to a christian boarding school in Iowa, named Cono. Cono was run by a man named Max Belz and the principal was Ted Noe. Max and Ted became good mentors. Thier mentoring was not so much one on one as it was look at my life as I lead you. I was encouraged to work as well as attend classes. The work for me was a panacea from loneliness, and it made me respected by these men. Being respected and thought well of by men around me was a new sensation, for this teen ager wanting to run away and live anywhere else but where I was.
Their mentoring taught me how to think, reason, respect wives, honor God, respond to criticism, read my Bible, pursue knowledge, encourage others, the worth of friendships and how to laugh.I think it helped me be a good dad and husband and child of God. There is still a lot of growth needed in all these areas, we never stop learning do we?
Ted, himself was an only child raised by a single mom. He found a connection with me through plants he kept o a window sill. We identified and talked about them. He was pulling me from my self-closet to a public arena. He could always be found in his study early in the morning. He taught some of my classes, there I learned Francis Schaeffer, John Owens, Rene Descartes who said” I think i am , therefor I am”. this saying was used by the Moody Blues in a song. We learned how to reason the above three authors and come away with a correct world life view. We learned epistemology, morals, and metaphysical necessities.
Max, had vision for ministry, Christian education and enterprise. He had a work ethic unrivaled. He would plow through the Wall Street journal daily and discuss the future prices of corn and pork bellies. He would marvel at the trains hauling coal. He didn’t get mad when I landed his car in the ditch from getting milk for the school on the 2 inch thick packed snow road of Iowa’s winter. As a testimony to him his children went on to start world magazine, some became lawyers and authors. He created in me a vision for educating my children to come. and how to apply my forming world life view into every day living.
Thanks for the prompt to remeber………..
Perennial plant propogator for Creekhill nursery. Over 40 years of experience with lots of plants from foliage, cut flowers, seasonal potted plants, annuals and perennials. A plant geek and nerd, i am
I have had a couple good “mentors” in my life, but the most profound life lesson for me was learned from my father without him ever once mentioning the word: COMMITMENT. My father was totally committed to his wife and children. We didn’t have much but we KNEW my father loved my mother, and she loved him. He loved and drew much joy from his children and, indeed, all children who crossed his path. My mother was ill much of their married life but my father loved her “for better or for worse, in sickness or in health” until the day he died….at age 54. My mother died five years later at age 52. So my parents have been gone a LONG time, but I remember the commitment of my father. And I have strove to live a committed life as well. I have succeeded in some things and failed in others…but ALWAYS the commitment of my father stands as a legacy from my father to me of what marriage and family is all about. So kudos to you Joel for learning from the men who mentored from you and passing that on to your children.
*striven*