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Mentoring Through the Busyness of Life

We are often out recruiting mentors and talking to our current mentors and one of the challenges that we all face is that life is BUSY!!

I am 38 at the writing of this post and have three children at home ages 7, 9, and 10 and I’ve come to realize that my life is not going to get less busy. Yes my children are older now and they can do more for themselves but as they get older they require more emotional and life investment. Before I was just changing a diaper and burping them, but now I need to be intentionally investing in them as I realize that my time with them is slipping away.

How do I invest in my marriage, my children, my church, my friends, and my work and still make time to invest in fatherless and motherless children?

Below are a few ideas:

• Involve children in what you are already doing. Coming to my house for dinner on a normal, average, everyday night can be a great way to invest in a child.
• Projects are opportunities. I have a list as long as my arm of all the things I need to get done at my house. Could I have my kids and maybe a boy from Youth Horizons help me with that list? Sure… why not!
• Don’t have and ALL or NOTHING mindset. Some times I think that if I can’t get 2 or 3 good solid hours in with a kid than it is not worth it. At Youth Horizons we asked mentors to spend 2-3 hours each week with a child, but if I can spend 1 hour with a child each week for the next 6 weeks and sort of build up some discipline, then I can stretch that to 1.5 hours. Take advantage of the time you have.

Intentionally mentoring an at-risk child does take work and life is busy. Neither one of those realities will change, but neither will the reality that mentoring makes a difference. Research demonstrates that a relationship with a trusted adult outside of the immediate family is a key factor in helping a child break the cycle.

Mentoring is worth it! Stay the course. If you are not involved mentoring then let us know that you are considering making a difference by filling out our mentoring interest form.