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When we lived in VA and knew we were expecting twin boys, I started looking for someone to offer some advice. We wanted to raise MEN, but we wanted them to gentlemen, too. I saw a lady at church who had three boys who seemed to have manners, yet acted like BOYS.

Annie has become my mentor for all things raising kids. Even though we’ve moved away, my hubs still lets me fly up to spend weekends with her, just soaking up wisdom. And she has learned how much her wisdom is needed. She’s let me introduce her to friends. And my friends will email me with questions for her that she’s always happy to answer. I have a stack of emails “Annie-mails” that I am saving. They are full of such valuable, helpful info.

I am just the opposite! We moved “home” and I have Gram just 15 min. away. However, I would LOVE to have a mentor that was older than me. Just recently I’ve met a lady at church who is becoming one! Soooo glad!

About three years ago I attended my first womans retreat. I remember my first reaction when I arrived at our pre-trip meeting, I thought “what am I doing here” “these women are so much older than I (I was in my 20s and single, they were mothers and grandmothers)” “what could I possibly have in common with them”. Little did I know that this weekend would turn out to be one of the best experiences of my life. The retreat was about our pursuit to wholeness. The conversations we shared and the realness I saw in them and their relationship with God were extremely contagious. I wanted what they had. I soon learned that having women mentors in my life that were older than me was a great benefit. They have walked ahead of me on life’s journey and the wisdom and encouragement they shared with me has been extremely valuable. One woman in particular has become like a second mother to me and I thank God for her in my life. I also think this relationship benefits the mentor as well because they get a chance to give back and watch you grow and develop. I think this is the way God intended for us to live in relationship with one another to encourage and support each other.

YES…i saw this need in my life for a Titus 2 woman and prayed specifically for this type of relationship and God was so faithful to answer that prayer! it is amazing how He can and does fill in gaps caused by divorce, distance..whatever..He meets our needs!

I had one very special Spiritual Mother for several years. She was everything my biological mother (unbeliever) was not. I can’t count the times I sought advice from her. Her family moved away 7 years ago, and I only speak with her periodically. I deeply appreciate the season that the Lord had her in my life, but I realize that I probably wouldn’t have grown up in Him if she’d stayed here…I depended on her too much, instead of going to Him.

She taught me how to minister and love others, and I hope I’m following in her footsteps just a bit.

I have had a couple of older women invest in me. My MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) mentor, Barb, was one. She held Bible studies in her home and showed us creative and fun ways we could teach the scriptures to our children. Barb also is very good at asking questions that cause you to stop and evaluate. Barb is an amazing encourager and her heart for women is HUGE! My other mentor-type woman is named Margie. We have done a Bible study together, and she has encouraged me in my roles of wife and mother. Margie offers to watch our 4 children so that my husband and I can get some much needed time alone together. Both of these women are precious to me! I thank God for placing them in my life.

My pastor’s wife completely took me under her wing when I showed up as a newlywed 19 year old fresh from mom’s house. She has influenced me so much with her relationship with God, and really teaching me how to have relationships with church members as a minister’s wife. I love her to pieces!

Well, I have many. But I can name three who just stand out like a sore thumb from my previous church and one of my family members who lives just a hop, skip and a jump from me here on the North Side of Fort Worth, TX.

At my previous church those women would be Claudia, Elaine and Dena. Claudia, is the pastor’s wife at our previous church, and she did Bible study with me in my house one summer when I was just dying to dig into the word without any support at all. She was the one who encouraged me to walk into women’s ministry, through the back door of “help me” I might add. She prayed with me, worked with me… and even gave me a job. We spent countless hours together sitting, talking and learning from one another. She even released me when my husband and I sensed it was time to go… to Move ahead with God’s plan for us and leave the little nest we had come of age in Christ in.

Elaine, she hosted a group for women who had suffered abuse. I attended with one other lady and Elaine - and, our bond is irrevocable. She would later invite me to join her on a retreat committee at the association office. Elaine, Claudia and I met weekly to pray and she and her husband Don loved my son to pieces.

Dena, she became a regular attender to women’s Bible study after I took the lead. She and her husband James are still good friends to us and their children are like my own. Dena not only holds a spot as someone special to me - she also taught Sunday School for our girls when they were just young ‘uns. Hard to believe it has been 8 years since we ventured into the great blessed unknown with God… but it has. She is precious, wonderful and such a priceless woman of God. She and James were the leaders of our small group just before we left the church. One night they led a round of “The Empty Chair” where you sit in a chair in the center of the room and each member of your group gets to say a few words of encouragement about you. Everyone in the room knocked me to the ground with their words of encouragment to me. James and Dena, people I love and respect so much, honored my love of God and pursuit of Him with words that still resound in my heart today.

I will never forget these women and what their ministry and friendship has meant to me… They are very much a part of who I am - they walked with me as I grew ministry legs, they helped me bury my oldest child and they said goodbye with blessings when it was time for us to take the next leg of the journey with God. Oh Glory, Thank You Lord for these wonderful women. I am blessed and honored to have been gifted with their influence, their testimony and their friendship.

Thanks for asking, Sophie.

I have loved reading these comments - thank you so much for sharing! I’m betting that about twenty years down the road, there are going to be some young mamas writing about how much YOU have impacted THEM. Not a doubt in my mind….

I guess I forgot my family member. My cousin, Sherry. She is my sister more than my cousin and I love her so. She and I share so much of our walk with God it is incredible. She blesses me with insight and challenges me to do what’s right in spite of how I feel - and we all need a bit of that don’t we!?

I read this post earlier today and went through all the people I’m very thankful for that fulfill that special place in our lives. My husband’s parents are with the Lord, his father died when he was just

As I read this post I thought of all the important people who take on those significant rolls in our lives. My parents are not believers and while they are wonderful parents and grandparents, they don’t share that spiritual bond with us. My husbands parents are with the Lord, His father passed away when my husband was 19 and his mother passed away when he was 27.

We are very fortuante to have a couple at church that have adopted our kids (and us!). They are my kids’ Grandma Barb and Papa Al. They mean the world to us. Not only do they take our kids every so often (because my parents live over 8 hours away), but they support us spiritually through those difficult days of parenting in the toddler years.

There are many men and women that we love in our church and have gain valuable insight from. Such faithful people who have continue to live life for the Lord. It seems they are always willing to support us when needed.

This will probably sound weird, but oh well. I do have mentors in real life, but I also feel like some of the people who I interact with online (I read their blogs, they read mine, we email, etc.) are mentors in their own way. Of course, I think that the real-life mentoring is way more important as there is a lot more to see than what is typed on a computer screen. But at the same time, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy reading blogs of people who are older than me and learning from whatever they’re going through.

Sophie, I would love to include you on that list but I think we all know that you’re younger than me. What a shame.

I can’t remember a time when I haven’t benefited from an older woman’s wisdom. I didn’t grow up in a Christian home or even a Christian extended family so I have always felt that God blessed me extra with the older women in my life. As a teenager I had a lady named Jo in my life that fed me a love for God and her family that has blessed me for all eternity. As I grew older God placed a wonderful friend in my life who is 11 years my senior and she has led me down the path to Jesus and His ways more times than I can count. Without her encouragement I’m not sure I would still be married. As I have become an “older woman” at church God continues to challenge me to seek out relationships with younger women and still He has placed me in a small group with women who are futher down the road than me. I just could not survive this life without God’s love poured out to me through the body of Christ. He has blessed me so richly through these Bliblical relationships that I just want to be that same blessing to others. Isn’t that how He designed it though? That’s the real circle of life :-)

God planted this mentor into my life at a very early age. My mom was raising my sister, brother and I by herself. She enrolled us in Big Brothers/Big Sisters and there I was introduced to Tammy. Our first “get to know you� outing was to Braum’s for ice cream (that’ll seal the deal). I was 6 and she was 19. We have been close ever since that first meeting and I remember walking around her apartment in her high heels and she remembers putting my hair up in pigtails. When her 2 daughters were graduating from high school in recent years, I asked her how she didn’t just bawl at how the time had disappeared and she replied, “Because if I cried about all of it I might miss the joy in these moments.� She’s always given such wise, godly advice and I thank God for knowing I needed her in my life at such a young age. Always remember to let your mentors know how much they have impacted your life.

My dear friend K.E. has been that for me. It was through her that God finally got through to me about not returning to my corporate job after the birth of my daughter. Now, seven years later, it continues to be her and her husband that are such examples for my husband and I. We don’t have as much one to one time as we used to, but I know that I can always look to her for godly and wise advice.

When our church held its first offsite women’s retreat, small groups were assigned pretty randomly. When I walked over to my assigned group, I’m sure my face fell. My first thought was, “They put me in the old ladies’ group!”

When my church started almost 10 years ago, I was old — 30 and a mother of two. My husband and I are still above the average age in our very young, largely single church.

That first retreat small group turned out to be one of the most amazing short-term groups I’ve ever been a part of. Those ladies were so full of wisdom, grace, and humor that they almost overflowed. One of those ladies is the mother of a woman who was half of the first couple to join our church. Our church isn’t her home church, but she drops in from time to time, and she always greets me like a long-lost daughter. She and her daughter are two of the most delightful women you could ever meet.

In my church, we have what are called spiritual running partners — one person who is always in your corner, who will support you no matter what. My running partner is 10 years younger than me but is so spiritually mature, fiercely loyal, and so fun. I’d say we’re mentors to each other, depending on the day, the week, the life season.