Cousins Day 3

Include your cousins in life's celebrations.
 

"People are looking for mentors, but there are few who are qualified to be good mentors. In Mary’s visit with Elizabeth, she found opportunity to be comforted, validated and strengthened by a friend who understood her situation as nobody else could. 

Elizabeth was a great mentor because she had been taught to walk with the Lord. Elizabeth is quick to advise Mary, to encourage her, to strengthen her faith, and to help her through this difficult time in her life. She has the experience that Mary lacks.

Mentoring a person has eternal consequences way greater than we can ever imagine. Elizabeth lived through the sorrowful loss of her son, John. It is possible she was able to show Mary what enduring a son’s murder looked like."

These last two sentences were a show stopper for me.  I had never thought about this similarity before.

It took me back to walking alongside a college student, whose mother had murdered her five year old brother.  I related in a tiny way, as my grandfather had been murdered, but not by a family member.  Her mother was sent to prison.  Within a year, I was taking this young women to visit three teenaged boys whose father had killed two people in a boating accident and was headed to prison.  I knew these fellows would listen to a peer who had a parent in prison. 

As we end this series on the cousins, Elizabeth and Mary, think about who your mentors are.  What is the criterion you have for the places you go for advice?  When someone comes to you for advice are you able to exhibit these qualities as well.

While number one should be to seek someone who is spiritually mature and grounded in biblical knowledge; finding someone who has either experienced what you are facing or is trained and knowledgeable in that area adds credibility.

Other characteristics to consider are someone who is a good listener, asks good questions, is able to be objective and will provide an honest, God honoring opinion, and exercises confidentiality. 

Proverbs 12:15 (MSG)

Fools are headstrong and do what they like; wise people take advice.

Proverbs 1:1-6  (MSG)

These are the wise sayings of Solomon, David's son, Israel's king-

Written down so we'll know how to live well and right, to understand what life means and where it's going; A manual for living, for learning what's right and just and fair; To teach the inexperienced the ropes and give our young people a grasp on reality. There's something here also for seasoned men and women, still a thing or two for the experienced to learn-Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate, the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.

The Song

“Perfect Wisdom of Our God” Keith and Kristyn Getty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSnzYnOe6kI