Yesterday as I was preparing supper, I looked out the kitchen window and saw Joe chatting on the phone. I could tell the phone call was meaningful to him because he was on the other side of the house from the noisy boys. As he came inside and entered the kitchen I could tell who he had been talking with…a dear friend, his mentor. During that ten minute phone call words were exchanged about the growth of the children, the condition of the church, community and prayer, and mostly words of encouragement. Encouragement seems to be the most powerful element to spur us on to do what we do, and why we do it. Choosing to homestead with our family, as lovely and precious as it is, can at times be lonely, and at times has it’s own motivational challenges.
We believe that we all need that someone (or someones) who encourage us to be exactly what God has intended us to be. A mentor has be ability to ask the right questions and share their own lives with the ‘mentee’ in such a way that is not of an answer man, but rather someone who walks beside you in your search to see the answers for yourself. There are many days that we have been able to recognize that if it was not for our mentors humbly opening their lives to us, we would not be inspired enough to keep pressing on. As funny as it may sound, there is a sense of comfort knowing that we are not the only people who every walked this ground full of manure and shoveling (there’s been a lot of that lately). No, many times has a man set his hand to the shovel and plunged it into the earth, and as the task may seem lonely or lack immediate meaning we remain utterly encouraged and spurred on by our many mentors who by the power of their words and love stand with us.
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