Dwell on These Things: Transform Your Heart and Mind by Memorizing God’s WordSample

Mentoring Matters

“You’re Natalie who never looks up.”

This is how Jo, one of my favorite baristas at the local coffee shop, identified me one morning as I placed my order. I’d been coming there every morning for several months. Unbeknownst to me, that was my nickname behind the counter. When I asked why, Jo told me, “No matter what happens, you never look up.” I’d never really thought about it, but she was right. For example, one day a grown man was skateboarding around the center table, and I just kept working, head down, ball cap low. To be honest, that’s pretty much my M.O. But apparently, if you don’t look up when weird things happen, people notice.

People always notice.

Humans are curious and social creatures. We’re constantly looking to see what other people are doing, talking about, wearing, and even eating. I could go on a whole diatribe here, but you get the point. Consider this: Who are you watching? Who are you looking to as an example?

Do you have a person or (even better) some people you look to when you need to figure out that job thing, or that relationship difficulty, or how to get your kids to wear pants and then later pants that are appropriate? Who’s the gentle someone you can call when you’re anxious, the one who prays with you and points you to the true, right, pure, lovely things? Who’s the someone you not only call on but the one you observe and imitate, the person living out her faith through thick and thin in front of you and with you?

If you have that person in your life, consider going a step further and ask her to mentor you. Basically, she’s already doing that, but asking her would formalize it. Schedule regular times to get together for coffee, to chat, pray, and study Scripture together. We all need these kinds of people, ones who can be an example to us.

Our verse today speaks to this. Paul told the Philippians they should do whatever they had heard and received (think “believed”) from him about the gospel and how to walk with Christ. They weren’t to follow just what they heard from him but also what they had seen practiced in his life. This is life imitating life. And it’s crucial to living out Philippians 4:9.

We all need to follow after someone who’s following Jesus (1 Corinthians 11:1). We need examples. We need those we can imitate who are imitating Jesus.

We aren’t physically able to hear Paul’s teaching or observe the way he lived his life. But Scripture reveals many of those details, so he remains a model to us. However, in Philippians 3:17, Paul also urged the Philippians (and us) to imitate or model our lives after other believers who are walking in biblical faithfulness. In so doing, we must keep in mind that no human is perfect, regardless of the depth of their faith. They will make mistakes. They will sin. As did Paul. That’s why, in 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul didn’t just say “Follow my example.” He qualified it, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (italics mine).

We need real-life human examples of what living for Christ looks like! Over the years, I’ve been mentored by a handful of women. They are wise women who are further along in the faith and who've been willing to walk with me through different seasons of my own faith journey. They’re not perfect. And I don’t expect them to be. But they’ve met with me, heard me, prayed for me, and have practically shown me how to follow our ultimate model, Jesus. I don’t know where I’d be without their willingness to mentor me and be an up-close example of godly living. And I’m so humbled to have been this kind of person for others over the years. I pray I have faithfully and rightly modeled Christ. Pouring into, being poured into. We all need the example of Christ being modeled for us and being reflected by us as we walk in obedience to Him.

Read Philippians 4:9 and consider how the example of Christ is being modeled both for you and by you. Are you pouring into other women? Are other women pouring into you? If the answer to either of these questions is no, ask the Lord to bring women into your life who help you to live out this verse.

For more of this study by Natalie Abbott and Vera Schmitz, visit lifeway.com/dwell