What Should You Do When No One’s Mentoring You?

Did you see this excellent piece over at The Gospel Coalition? It’s on mentoring, and it focuses in particular on woman-to-woman relationships.

Most all of us want to be invested in, but not all of us have succeeded at finding someone to do it. If that’s true of you, this article has a good deal of personal, practical, and biblical wisdom. I highly commend, and not least because it’s by my mother-in-law, Jodi Ware (wife of theologian Bruce Ware).

Here’s a teaser:

Some time ago, a young woman asked who had mentored me. She was surprised when I replied I’d never been mentored. I had in mind, of course, the idea that mentoring involves a formal, weekly or biweekly meeting with a wise older woman—doing a Bible or book study together and learning how to live as a Christian woman. I have never experienced this specific kind of mentoring.

But I’ve been mentored. And a chief tool has been reading good books. Early in my years as a wife and mom, I avidly pored over every Elisabeth Elliot book I could find. Her writing shaped my soul in countless ways. Even today I can recall many wise thoughts from her pen. In more recent years, I’ve worked my way through Puritan and Reformed writings, finding much nourishment for my soul from John Owen, J. C. Ryle, John Murray, and a host of others. During the last decade, I’ve discovered and been so helped by Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) writers (e.g., David Powlison, Paul Tripp, Ed Welch, Elyse Fitzpatrick, and so on) who’ve shown me how to apply God’s sufficient Word to the circumstances of life. And of course, reading contemporary theologians (e.g., J. I. Packer, John Piper, Don Carson) provides a steady diet of truth about God. I frequently thank the Lord for the wealth of resources available to us, and I want to be faithful to share these resources with those who have far less.