Becoming A Yes Sister By Angelia WhiteSample

Day 7 

Even Mentors Are Works in Progress

We all have much to offer women who are younger than us and seeking wise advice. If you feel called to be the more experienced, mentor-kind of Yes Sister, consider these guidelines:

· Listen more than you speak, especially at first. Someone who feels heard is more likely to open up and trust you.

· Understand that younger generations experience life from a different perspective than you do. Try using their world for context, and envision yourself with your similar challenges but lived out in a framework that may make those challenges harder, easier, or even weirder for them than they were for you at the same stage.

· Advice can sound like criticism. Offer it sparingly, when the woman asks or welcomes it.

· Encourage, lift up and show interest in what the younger woman can offer. Affirm her potential.

· Pay attention to the younger woman’s strengths and help her discover what they are. She may not recognize them herself.

· A mentor is an example. Work hard to live honorably, with integrity. It speaks volumes.

· Older women benefit in many ways from the joy, insights, and exuberance of a younger Yes Sister. Bless her by welcoming the ways she attempts to bless you. We’re all works in progress. 

Some days we’re stronger than others. The “becoming” part of sisterhood never stops. We’re either growing or stagnating. Practice keeps us growing. Today is a good day to continue becoming.

Can you feel it—the beckon of yes?

It nudges a long-quiet wonder.

It surprises with an awareness that you are not to remain “content.”

Striving for more gratitude will not hush it.

Busying yourself will not scatter it.

It’s the swell of something new in the air,

the exhale that breathes,

“It’s time.”