Welcome!

Walking with the Lord, we are each being guided and are guiding others along the path of becoming more like Jesus.  Perhaps you find that you are already naturally paired up with a Christian woman mentor or mentee.  The Lord has a way of placing his children with those who can mutually encourage and build each other up.  We welcome all mentor-mentee pairs, even those who happen into this mentorship nook unexpectedly. Freely walk with us using these resources for your work as mentor and mentee, sitting at the feet of Jesus.

A great mentor is attuned to her mentee’s unfolding growth, so she adapts with finely tuned stories, intriguing conversation starters, and personalized scripture choices. On the website, we offer some suggestions that may help. Mentors and mentees decide for themselves what they would like to use together. 

To begin as a mentee within Hillcrest, women complete the Hillcrest Mentee Survey by September. Hillcrest mentees are paired with mentors who have accepted the Mentor Design Team’s invitation to this season of mentoring. Each pairing commits to meeting for about three hours a month, September through May. 

Every month highlights a new focus with many ways of growing in that month’s virtue. The ways to share stories, the scriptures, and the spiritual practices are offered as a menu. People can choose from a variety of options. 

Sitting at the feet of Jesus together, authentically sharing our stories and really listening, hearing each other soul to soul, both mentor and mentee are transformed.  Welcome to this journey of discipleship with women who will walk together in authenticity and openness. Experience being dearly loved and deeply wanted.  

The Commitment

I commit to three hours a month of time together.

I commit to being open to the message of Jesus.

I commit to being open and authentic in this relationship.

I commit to hearing feedback in this relationship as coming from love.

I commit to total confidentiality regarding what is shared of anyone’s personal life story in the group. This confidentiality is limited by the need to disclose any threat to the well-being of any person.

I commit to inviting a third person such as a minister, elder, mentoring coach, and/or counselor into the relationship if the need arises to process our story or the relationship further.

A Message from the Mentor Design Team

The Mentor Design Team wishes to thank all who have helped and inspired us in building these resources. The Lord has nudged us to grab hold of wisdom as we prayed, read, and talked with others. Along the way, he brought us people who could show us next steps. We knew his presence by his loving peace, his gentle care, and his serendipitous timing. 

As we practiced sharing our own stories with each other, we came to experience the profound impact of being fully known and dearly loved. What we were surprised by was the equally transforming power of knowing another’s story and coming to dearly love them.

Thank you to Carmen Foster for expert care in bringing this plan to life on the website. We thank Dan McGregor, Professor in Abilene Christian University’s Department of Art and Design, for some of the ideas for inspiring artworks. 

We are grateful to you for joining us in this season of mentoring. 

The Mentor Design Team, 2023-2024

Courtney Campbell, Pam Darrow, Elida Hernandez, Jana Hite-Rice, Sherri Luttrell, Macy McClung, Riley Scroggins, Jordana Vaughan, Heather White-Burrow, and Kathie Wright

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free. After check-in, please go to the prayer button.

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What will be different when this journey together is successfully completed? Specifically, what will you be doing and experiencing when you have reached your spiritual growth target in May?  At each session, rate your growth toward your chosen personal target on a scale of 1-10, 10 being bull’s eye. Describe what will be happening at just one step closer, as in one number higher. 

Review the mentor-mentee commitment and state your agreement together.

1. I commit to three hours a month of time together. 
2. I commit to being open to the message of Jesus.  
3. I commit to being open and authentic in this relationship.
4. I commit to hearing feedback in this relationship as coming from love.
5. I commit to confidentiality regarding what is shared of anyone’s personal life story in the group. This confidentiality is limited by the need to disclose any threat to the well-being of any person. 
6. I commit to inviting another person such as a minister, elder, mentoring coach, and/or counselor into the relationship if the need arises to process our story or the relationship further. 

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

God, help us trust you with our decisions and future. Let us lean on you with all our hearts instead of relying on our own imperfect understanding. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: Consider the lilies of the field;
Exhale: how they grow.

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (KJV)

This is our September verse to memorize. 

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (KJV)

This is our September verse to memorize. 

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Isaiah 43:2

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Psalm 143:8

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.

Matthew 6:25-34

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

Plan.  As mentor and mentee, agree to make brief decade-by-decade journal notes about what happened that affected your spiritual lives in each 10-year block of your lives. As a parallel point, tell what you see God doing with those events in each decade.  

Set a time and place when you can be together for a longer time to tell your stories, decade by decade. Tell the parallel, interwoven story of how God’s story is happening throughout your story.  You may want to plan a special get-away to a quiet private place for this conversation. 

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Talk about the times when you were living out the trust-building scripture, Matthew 6:28-30. “And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

• Tell each other what it will look like when in the future you are  fully entrusting your life to the Lord. What will be happening? What will you be doing as you are resting in his will?

• Remind each other about your own life experience and in each other’s life stories where you saw the truth of the trust-building scripture, Romans 8:28; “All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that build our trust in God. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Begin journaling your experiences with the Lord. Regularly note the ways he is opening your eyes and building your trust in him.  Write about what you think and feel about trusting the Lord. Write about what the Lord is doing.

• Create a simple yet novel adventure this month in which you go to a place you have never been before, trusting God in the uncertainty and unexpected. Invite the Lord to guide you. Notice where you see the Lord’s hand in the experience. You might do this together, finding a special place to share your story.  Going on a novel adventure individually works too.

• Read a manageable portion of the Bible daily as you rise and as you go to sleep. Life can get busy. Even small daily portions of scripture add up provide great internalized wisdom.  Trust in the Lord builds as we read the word, taking in his truths.

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus. 

 Sing

• “Consider The Lilies”;  6-year-old, Claire Crosby; hear by searching online
• “Do Not Fear”; Hillsong; hear by searching online
• “Be Thou My Vision”; Audrey Assad on YouTube; hear by searching online
• “Trust And Obey”; song 915 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal

See

• The Letters,” 2015 movie
• “Why haven’t you healed me?” scene from the Chosen; see by searching online

Read 

• Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller
• Tracks of a Fellow Struggler: Living and Growing through Grief by John Claypool
• Don’t Waste your Suffering by Rose Waldrup

Think 

• “Trust is like blood pressure. It’s silent, vital to good health, and if abused it can be deadly.”  Frank Sonnenberg, author of Follow Your Conscience
  
• “Trust is like the air we breathe – when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.”  Warren Buffett
• “Trust is like love. Both parties have to feel it before it really exists.” Simon Sinek
• “You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.”  Frank Crane

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision?—*What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

*Some mentors will also be tracking a spiritual growth goal for themselves and can tell about this here. Others will be focusing only on the mentee’s goal. Some will be mentoring with a few mentees together and will be asking each mentee for a quick check-in rating as the session starts. A crucial part of this question involves having the mentee describe what will be happening at the one-step closer point.

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

Lord we invite you to change our hearts. Lord, we agree with Corrie Ten Boom  that “Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.” We are turning our burdens into prayer today. Hear our hearts. May the Spirit help us to pray this prayer.  We want to forgive as we have been forgiven. Where we have been hurt, bring forgiveness as we are healing. Where we have hurt others, bring reconciliation as we make amends. 

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: “Forgive us our trespasses;
Exhale: as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32 ESV

This is our October verse to memorize.

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32 ESV

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Ephesians 4:31-32

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Combine Acts 2:38 and 1 John 1:9 as one reading. 

—Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
—If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 

Combine Mark 11:25 with Matthew 6:12-14

—Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
—And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

Inevitably, living among people, we occasionally get hurt. As mentor and mentee, tell about what you are asking the Lord to help you to forgive right now. Tell of the hurt in that situation. Tell of the growth process you are in. Forgiveness involves seeing what the person who hurt you was thinking and feeling and wanting. Tell what you see as the perspective and motivation of the other person. Tell what you are asking the Lord to do in healing you and the situation. What would be the sign that forgiveness has happened?

Remember that forgiveness is a process rather than a one-time event. We forgive as we face the reality of what happened. The first step might be telling others. Eventually, we may reach a compassionate understanding of the weaknesses or views of the person in need of forgiveness. Forgiving may involve reconciling. It may involve holding firm boundaries to protect against future harm. Talking over your process of forgiving with a good listener can help.

Hiding hurts just makes them grow. Authenticity is healing.

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Tell of a time when you forgave someone. What did you see the Lord doing that helped? What did you do that helped?
  
• In your life, how have you worked through needing to forgive yourself? What do you believe the Lord would like to say to you about your mistake? Where are you on self-forgiveness? What will be happening when you know that you have forgiven yourself as the Lord has forgiven you?
  
• Corrie Ten Boom wrote, “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” What is the temperature of your heart right now regarding a hurt you are hoping to forgive?  Tell how the Holy Spirit is helping you to become forgiving. Tell your story of God’s involvement in forgiveness of others and of yourself.

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that build our heart of forgiveness. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Journal your experiences with the Lord. Regularly note the ways he is opening your eyes and building your ability to forgive.  Write about what you think and feel as you forgive and about what the Lord is doing. 
• Forgiveness involves seeing what the person who hurt you was thinking and feeling and wanting. Sometimes that involves some time alone writing or speaking aloud. While alone or with a friend, write or speak from the point of view of the person who hurt you. Still alone or with a friend, write or speak your words about what you see in that person. Acknowledge the reality of the hurt. Also name what you can of any issues and hindrances in the person’s life. 
• Accept what is real about the situation and the hurt you have endured. Seek help for the pain. Sometimes this will involve psychotherapy for healing. In addition to getting help from others, in prayer, give the injury to the Lord for spiritual healing. Watch for what the Lord is doing and for helpers that are here now.
• Consider if it is time to confront a person who has offended you. If it is time, surround yourself with the support you need to do this. Be in prayer about your steps.

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• “A Simple Prayer”;  acapella with Lyrics online at Dino Roldan Jr.; hear by searching online
• “If I have Wounded any Soul Today”
• “Create in me a Clean Heart”;  hear by searching online
• “Freely Freely,” song 635 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal
• “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,” song 770 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal

See

• Amish Grace, the movie
• Treasures of the Snow, the movie
• The Hiding Place, the 1975 movie

Read 

• The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu
• Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again by  Lysa TerKeurst
• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
• Grace is Greater by Kyle Idleman

Think 

• “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.”  Corrie Ten Boom
• “Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.”’ Corrie Ten Boom 
• “A happy marriage is the union of two great forgivers.” Ruth Bell Graham

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

Holy father, we ask you to come into our lives and grow our faith.  Give us a heart to know You are present, every day.

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: Help me live by faith;
Exhale: and not by sight.

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

Combine Hebrews 11:1 and Hebrews 12:1b-2a in this reading.

—Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
—Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us: keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.

This is our November verse combo to memorize.

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32 ESV

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Mark 5:25-34

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

James 2:14-26

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.  You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Hebrews 11 (as a session meditation, you might want to choose a portion of this)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets,  who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.  Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

Across your lifetime, how have your eyes been open to seeing ways that God has been working in your life?  Was that something you anticipated?  Did it look different than you thought it would?  What role did faith play?  

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Talk about the times when you were living out the scripture, Mark 5:25-34. When have you figuratively reached for the hem of Jesus’ garment?  What did you experience?
• Tell each other about what happens when you are fully trusting God as the perfecter of your faith. What are you or will you be doing as you are resting in his will? 
• Tell about a person in your life who inspires you to greater faith. This might be someone from you past or your present. It might be someone who is described in the Bible, such as in the Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith.”

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that build out faith. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Write in your journal, in detail, a story from your past, where you see God worked in your life.  This can be the start of your “Hall of Faith” like the one found in Hebrews 11.
• Pray and reflect on some ways you can put your faith into action.  Make specific plans to act on one of these ideas. Faith without deeds is dead. Bring faith to life.  Act because of faith. Do something that takes great faith this month. 
• Tell faith stories to a child or another friend.  Stories from the Bible, as well as our own stories, help to grow our faith and the faith of others. Can you picture God’s people who lived before us as a cloud of witnesses?  By remembering their stories, we can gain strength in times of uncertainty.  We can remember that the same God of Mary, Elizabeth, and Deborah is our God.  He is still working. Tell someone a Bible story that inspires faith.  Tell one of your life stories that inspires faith, also.

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• “Living by Faith”
• “Great is Thy Faithfulness”
• “Oh, for a Faith That Will Not Shrink”

See

• I Walk by Faith, painting by Judy Cooley; see by searching online
• Thread of Faith, painting by Howard Lyon Fine Art and Illustration; see by searching online

Read 

• Beholding and Becoming:  The Art of Everyday Worship by Ruth Chou Simons

Think 

•  “To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.  When you swim, you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do, you will sink and drown.  Instead you relax and float.”  Alan Watts
• “The kind of spiritual life disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive, and ordinary. I often want to skip the boring, daily stuff to get to the thrill of an edgy faith. But it’s in the dailiness of the Christian faith – the making the bed, the doing the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small – that God’s transformation takes root and grows.” – Tish Harrison Warren
• “Faith is not believing in my own unshakable belief. Faith is believing an unshakable God when everything in me trembles and quakes.” — Beth Moore
• “Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.” — C.S. Lewis

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

Dear Lord, 

We are sorry that our hearts are often flooded with pride. We confess to times of prioritizing self interest that crowds out the needs of others.  

We want instead to live in synchrony with your word.  

May we do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than ourselves. 

May we look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. 

We are in awe of the humility of Christ in taking the nature of a servant. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! 

We want to be clothed in humility. 

May we humble ourselves, under your mighty hand, that you may lift us up in due time. 

We know that you oppose the proud but show favor to the humble. 

Lord, we ask through your Word that we may be transformed. 

In the name of Jesus,
Amen

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: In Christ’s humility
Exhale: Consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:3).

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

James 4:10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

This is our December verse to memorize.

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

James 4:10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Philippians 2:5-8  

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Combine Luke 14:11  and John 13:2-17 as one session’s reading

—For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

—The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet,drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean,though not every one of you.”  For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Combine Proverbs 16:18 and Proverbs 11:2 as one session’s reading.

—Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
—Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

We consider it a gift from God when we are made less proud.  Gratitude is a part of humility. If someone gives us their best, we are humbled.  As mentor and mentee, tell about a time when you have personally been humbled by someone or by the Spirit.

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Being authentic, we can share our weaknesses and struggles. Tell of a time when you struggled to choose humility over haughtiness. What desires were at war within you? Which side won? How would you strengthen the humility side for future inner battles?
• People who are humble are able to collaborate. Good listeners are humble. People who admit to needing help are humble. Tell how the Holy Spirit is helping you to grow in humility and what that growth does for your relationships. .
• When we see someone putting others first, we are in admiration.  When we see someone boast, we see a trouble spot for them. Tell of an observation you have made. When have you witnessed great humility? What was the effect of the humble act?

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that builds out our humility. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Meditate on Jesus taking the lowly position of a slave to wash the dirty feet of his disciples. This month, wash feet, literally or figuratively. The real challenge for us is to do it humbly, even without becoming proud of taking a low position. 
• As you journal this month, write down the scriptures provided and feel free to add scriptures that you notice in your personal time reading the Bible. 
• Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see those around you in need. Think of ways you may bless others in your sphere of influence and beyond. Take Christmas presents and/or food to a family in need. Reach out to an elderly person who is shut-in or to a widow or widower and invite them to lunch or dinner. Invite them to sit by you at church or to be a part of your Christmas plans. Offer to babysit for a young family. Act on any nudge from the Lord to make a difference. Come back to your journal and share how you felt doing for others and lifting them up. What did the Holy Spirit reveal to you?
• This month practice humility, giving credit to God and to others rather than bragging. Notice when helping another person to win is more important than winning. Notice when you keep from winning or bragging because you know the Lord’s lavish love is fully enough. 

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• Humble Yourselves”; song 745 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal
• “On Bended Knee”; song 791 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal
• “Here I Am to Worship” performed by the ZOE Group; hear by searching online.

See

• The Nativity Story, the movie, 2006
• A Christmas Carol, the 1999 movie
• The Child’s Bath by Mary Cassatt; see by searching online
• In Humility by Simon Dewey; see by searching online

Read 

• Flourish: How the Love of Christ Frees Us from Self-Focus by Lydia Brownback
• Humble Roots by Hannah Anderson

Think 

• “What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.”
  Fred Rogers
• “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
  C.S. Lewis
• “Humility is not a character trait to develop, it’s the natural by-product of being with Jesus.”
  Louie Giglio
• “Sin came through the pride of Lucifer and salvation came through the humility of Jesus.”
  – Zac Poonen
• “We pray for the heart position of humility. Humility in such a way that we do not cheapen our own worth or value within, but that we take the alignment that we are here for a greater purpose than just our own gain. We pray that You will highlight to us what it truly means to live a humble life, and that our own worth will be revealed by Your Light. It is only then that we may truly live in freedom and right standing, for we will hold our own value correctly. Lord, we welcome You to mold and secure our hearts in true humility by Your lead. Today we choose to walk humbly with You. We choose to live by Your Holy Spirit and to follow Your lead. Help us to hear You clearly, for we do not want to walk by pride or self-sufficiency, we want to walk with You.” Cally Logan, Crosswalk.com, August 8, 2023

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

Lord, show us how the way you designed each of us matches your calling for each of us. We each pray, about my characteristics, my placement geographically, as well as my being here at this specific time, please, show me my usefulness for your kingdom. We pray this for ourselves and for each other.

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: “Your will be done”
Exhale: “On earth as it is in heaven.” 

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is our January verse to memorize.

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

James 4:10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Mark 1:16-20

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.  When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Combine Ephesians 2:10 and Philippians 1:6  as one session’s reading.

—“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God created in advance for us to do.”
—“…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Psalm 139:13-16 

For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

1 Peter 4:10

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

As mentor and mentee, tell about a time when you knew you were absolutely exactly where the Lord wanted you to be, using the gifts he had designed into you for his purpose. 

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Tell of a time when you experienced flow, that feeling of being so immersed in what you were doing that time seemed to stand still and all of your attention was on the moment. What resulted from that focused attention?
• Tell about what you have been journaling this month as you develop a description of your designed-in purpose. If you are comfortable reading your journal notes in the mentor session, read what you wrote regarding developing a personal statement as if you were a brand. See this month’s Live it Out for details on the journal prompt. 
• Tell how the Holy Spirit has helped you to know your purpose and what the scriptures are showing you about how your purpose is linked to bearing the image of God. 
• Talk about your experience or interest in fasting. Consider if you might want to fast for a few hours or for a day as a way of focusing more on the idea of purpose, devoting some extra time to prayer and scripture. Some people fast by skipping a meal and spending that time in focused meditation. Some people take a day, perhaps eating supper, then eating again as the sun sets the next day.  If you decide to fast and focus on your purpose in prayer, share what awareness the Lord brings to you. Be sure to fast only in a way that fits with the healthy rhythms of your body and with any unique medical needs you might have.  If you are under medical care, ask your physician what would work best for you. 

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that helps us to realize our calling. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Journal about your traits and strengths. Choose words from a list of adjectives to collect a description of your ways of being. Identify your passions. Where do you have grit, showing up no matter how hard it is? 
• Ask those who know you well where you tend to shine. Note these comments in your journal. 
• Take an online spiritual gifts and talents test. Note what rises to the top as ways you tend to work for and with the Lord. 
• Write a personal vision statement as if you were a brand. State what you do in the Lord, why you do it, and what makes you unique in doing it. Another way to state your purpose is to write your passion and your method of fulfilling it. I exist to ____ by ______.

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• “A Simple Prayer“; hear by searching online
• “Jesus is Tenderly Calling”, song 947 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal
• “I Then Shall Live” by Songwriters: David Phelps & Gloria L Gaither; hear by searching online

See

• It’s a Wonderful Life,  the movie
• Calling of St. Matthew, the painting by Caravaggio; see by searching online 
• The Banjo Lesson, the painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner; see by searching online 
• St. Joseph the Worker, the painting by Pietro Annigoni; see by searching online 

Read 

• Made for More, by Hannah Anderson 

Think 

• “He (Christ) is calling us to a violent authenticity that willingly crucifies our corrupt selves in order that we might finally know our true purpose. In order that we might finally know Him.” — Hannah Anderson, Made for More 

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

Lord, we welcome your presence. Open our eyes that we may see, our ears that we may hear, and our hearts that we may love. Come Lord Jesus. Come. 

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: Give us today;
Exhale: Today’s bread.

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” 

This is our February verse to memorize. 

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” 

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Matthew 26:36-46 

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch[a] with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Psalm 86:5-8 NIV 

You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me. Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. 

Combine Romans 8:26-27 and John 14:26 as one session’s reading.

—“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

—“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

Tell how your intimacy with the Lord has changed since you have been communicating and communing with him in prayer. 

As mentor and mentee, tell about your prayer life. What is your pattern? What would you like to be true about your prayer life? Tell what will be happening when your prayer life is as you hope it will become. What will you be doing when you are one step closer to that vision?

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• What has been your experience with the Lord’s prayer across your lifetime?  Tell how the Holy Spirit has helped you to see the Lord more clearly as you pray the Lord’s prayer.  
• Pray the Lord’s prayer together using the ancient wording. ‘Our Father,
  Who art in heaven,
  hallowed be Thy name;
  Thy kingdom come;
  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
  Give us this day our daily bread;
  and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation,
  but deliver us from evil.
  For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.”
• Tell of a time when listening to the Lord and to others has increased your compassion. 
• In what ways over your lifetime have you become “poor in spirit” and how has being poor in spirit drawn you into a regular prayer life? 

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that build our intimacy with God through prayer. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Create a specific 3 x 5 prayer card for each person you are praying over. Pray these cards daily this month. You may want to use a few cards each day, completing them all in a week.
  
• Journal a written prayer from the heart. 

In praise, write what you see of the Lord’s character. 

In gratitude, write what you are thankful for. 

In authenticity, write what you think and feel about what bothers you. 

In trust, ask for what you need and affirm that you can trust the Lord to answer.

• Consider that your prayer might be answered with “Yes,” or instead with “I’ve got something better for you.” Talk with the Lord in prayer about your experience of an answer that is other than “Yes.”

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• “Even So—Come Lord Jesus Come” performed by the Zoe Group; hear by searching online
• “Sitting at the Feet of Jesus” performed by Fountainview Academy; hear by searching online
• “I Surrender All” performed by Acapella; hear by searching online
• “I Need Thee Every Hour” performed by Kelsie Jelsema, Riley McCabe & Kaatje Schmidt at Welcome to Future:Past; hear by searching online
• “Be with me Lord”; song 778 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal

See

• “The Shema Prayer,” an episode of The Chosen; see by searching online
• Prayer, 1859, painting by John Phillip; see by searching online
• The Annunciation, painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner; see by searching online
• Forest Lake (1895), painting by Isaac Levitan; see by searching online
• Return of the Prodigal Son, painting by Pompeo Batoni; see by searching online

Read 

• A Praying Life, Paul Miller 
• Sacred Rhythms, Ruth Haley Barton
• Breath as Prayer, Jennifer Tucker

Think 

• “Simply put, prayer is all the ways in which we communicate and commune with God. The fundamental purpose of prayer is to deepen our intimacy with God.”
  Ruth Haley Barton in Sacred Rhythms 
• “I think that compassion begins when we start to listen.”
  Jennifer Tucker 
• “You don’t need self-discipline to pray continuously, you just need to be poor in spirit.”
  Paul Miller, in A Praying Life
• “Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.”
  St. Augustine

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

 We are praying scripture today.  We want to live out 1 Corinthians 13. 

Lord,

 “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Lord, May we become love as you are love. 

In the name of Jesus, Amen

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: I love my neighbor
Exhale: as myself

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

Matthew 22:37-39 

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 

This is our March verse to memorize.

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up. .

John 19: 15-27

 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”

Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

“They divided my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,”  and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Mark 16: 1-20

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.  And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”  And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”  And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. 

John 21:10-17

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.  Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.  This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”  He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

As mentor and mentee, tell how you have seen love mature and deepen across the lifespan. Tell your love story.  What will be happening when you have grown even more in loving God and neighbors? What first step toward that growth would make sense to you to take now? 

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Tell how you respond when you read the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and of his moment of giving Mary to John and John to Mary. What do you see of love in this? How does it connect to your own feelings about your own mother and of your own dearly loved friends?  
• Jesus’ resurrection was met with varied responses, from fear to faith to disbelief. When you read in Mark 16 of the resurrection, what do you imagine you would have done or felt if you were living at the time of those events? Who would you be in the story? With whom do you identify? How ready are you to receive the love of Jesus fully? 
• Tell about times when you seemed to have or to be an enemy.  Jesus is having fish with Peter after the resurrection as told in John 21:10-17.  What does feed your enemy mean to you in this context? How is being an enemy a state of mind? What have you seen love conquer? 

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that help us to love well. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Journal a love letter to the Lord. 
• Write a love letter to a friend or family member.  Send it by mail. 
• Do something special for three of your neighbors this month. Pick those you want to get to know better. Take the risk. Go ahead and go first. 

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• “They Will Know We Our Christians By Our Love” (We Are One In The Spirit) performed by Jars of Clay, with images at Donald Bostic online
• “Love One Another” (The Greatest Command) performed by  FC Alumni Chorus with images at R Doman online

See

• Of Gods and Men, the movie
• The Good Samaritan, painting by Vincent van Gogh
• Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet, painting by Ford Madox Brown

Read 

• Present over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living,  by Shauna Niequist

Think 

•  “Forgive and give as if it were your last opportunity. Love like there’s no tomorrow, and if tomorrow comes, love again.”
  —Max Lucado

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

Lord, we come to you thankful for grace, praying your words while receiving your truth.

Even though we were dead because of our sins, you gave us life when you raised Christ from the dead.

Because of your grace you made us right in your sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

God, in your grace, you freely make us right in your sight. You did this through Christ Jesus when you freed us from the penalty for our sins.

For your grace, God, has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people.

Lord, Your grace is sufficient for us, for your power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore we will boast all the more gladly about our weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on us. That is why, for Christ’s sake, we delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when we are weak, then we are strong.

For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith—and this is not from ourselves, it is the gift of you, God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Thank you, God, that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth … Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

We know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make us rich.

For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

We thank you, Lord, in Jesus’ name,
Amen

This prayer incorporates words from Ephesians 2:5, Titus 3:7, Romans 3:24, Titus 2:11, 2 Corinthians 12:9–10, Ephesians 2:8–9, ‎John 1:14-17, 2 Corinthians 8:9, and John 1:16

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale: Lord, Lord
Exhale: Merciful and Gracious

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

2 Corinthians 9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 

This is our April verse to memorize.

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Combine John 1:14-17 and Romans 5:15 into one session’s reading. 

John 1:14-17

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth … Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

    with

Romans 5:15

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

2 Timothy 1:8-10

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.  He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Ephesians 1:6-10

…to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he  made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

As mentor and mentee, tell about where you have seen the truth of God’s  words in your life, as he spoke to Paul about weakness.  2 Corinthians 12:9—“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.’” 

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Tell of a time when you were most aware of receiving grace as the undeserved gift of God. 
• Tell how the Holy Spirit has helped you to be restored as described in 1 Peter 5:10.
  “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
• What has drawing near to the throne of grace meant in your life? This is described in Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that build our graciousness. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• Journal about God’s character as described in Exodus 34:6. God’s grace arises from his inherent graciousness. Graciousness means seeing the worth or value of another with enhancement. “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” 
• In Ephesians 2:7, we read, “So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.” What could future generations see if God was pointing to you? Notice where God is being gracious and kind to you this month. 
• Draw or doodle or create something that reminds you of God’s grace in your life. 
• Choose to defeat prideful arrogance when you see it rise from within.  Make a note to yourself to post somewhere you need an extra reminder of James 4:6 “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• “Amazing Grace—Sweetest Song I Know” by Armor Music Ministry; hear by searching online.
• “Amazing Grace” performed at MattNickleMusic; hear by searching online. 
• “Just as I am—I Come Broken”; hear by searching online.
• “You Say,” performed by Lauren Daigle; hear by searching online.
• “His Grace Reaches Me”; song 113 in Songs of Faith and Praise Hymnal

See

• Rembrant’s painting, Prodigal Son; see by searching online
• Michelangelo’s Pietà, Mary holding Jesus after the crucifixion; see by searching online
• Käthe Kollwitz Pietà, the artist holding her son who died in war; see by searching online
• “The Woman at the Well”, episode of The Chosen; see by searching online 
• Grace, the Character of God Word Studies, The Bible Project, Sep 22, 2020; see the video by searching online

Read 

• One Thousand Gifts Devotional, by Ann Voskamp
• Grace Is Greater: God’s Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain, and Rewrite Your Story,  by Kyle Idleman
• The Cure by John Lynch, Bruce McNicol, and Bill Thrall 

Think 

• “This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners; for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s but ours.” ~ Martin Luther 
• “Make sure that you let God’s grace work in your souls by accepting whatever He gives you, and giving Him whatever He takes from you. True holiness consists in doing God’s work with a smile.” ~ Mother Teresa
• “Pray. Start with a simple request, making it the refrain of your day; ‘God open the eyes of my heart.’, This must be a spirit led journey. Receive. Open your hands to receive the simple, daily gifts, writing down all the unique and ordinary things you notice, from the grand and obvious to the humble and hidden.  Praise. Praise Him for the unexpected and the unlikely, for the daily and the difficult, and the graces in disguise. The more you count, the more gifts you will see. Do not disdain the small. The moments add up, and we might come to believe it – the whole earth is full of His glory!”-excerpt from Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts Devotional, pg. 10.

Start a Session

Each time mentors and mentees gather, we check in on two topics—gratitude and vision.  This check-in is quick and judgment-free.  

1. Gratitude—Tell what you are thanking the Lord for right now. 
2. Vision—What is your current 1-10 self-rating of growth toward your chosen spiritual wellness goal? What will be happening when you are one step closer, as in one number higher

After check-in, please go to the Pray Together button.

Pray Together

Prayer of Invitation

Pray aloud together.

Lord, open my eyes that I may see the wonders of your hands. Help me to slow down and to have eyes that see the wonders in your creation, to notice the little things, and to see you in the burning bush.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Breath Prayer

Repeat this aloud together three times, with slow, relaxed breath. 

Inhale:  Still my soul.
Exhale:  You are God.

After the opening prayers together, please go to the Sit at the Feet of Jesus button.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

Psalm 19:1-2

The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the skies announce what his hands have made.
Day after day they tell the story;
    night after night they tell it again.  

This is our May verse to memorize. 

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

Session One’s Scripture

Psalm 19:1-2
The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the skies announce what his hands have made.
Day after day they tell the story;
    night after night they tell it again.  

More Session Options/Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Mark 6:31 

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Mark 1:35

And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. 

Psalm 66:5 

“Come and see the wonders of God; His acts for humanity are awe-inspiring.”  

After this scripture portion, please go to the Share your Story button.

Share Your Story

As mentor and mentee, tell about what you remember being fascinated by as a child. Describe in detail the nature you loved then. Let yourself re-experience those joys as you tell your story.

After the Share your Story portion, please go to the Live it Out button. 

More Story Sharing Options

• Decide to seek out a place that will increase your sense of “wonder” over all the Lord has made. Tell where you will go and what you hope to see. This might be a fascinating place or it might be getting with children to learn from their ways. It can be anything in which your senses come alive to marvel at the ways of the Lord.
• Share with each other a song or image that communicates your personal sense of wonder.  Describe the details of what you see and hear and feel and touch and even taste and smell in that setting. Bring the experience to life. 
• Tell of a place and time in which you got away for spiritual renewal. What happened there? 

Live it Out

This month, we are offering a menu of actions that build our sense of wonder. Feel free to do any or all of these.

• In the morning, rise up a great while before day, and like Jesus, go out, and depart into a solitary place, and pray there. Journal about this experience. 
• Sit and observe a child.  Write down observations in your journal. Consider what Jesus saw in children.  “They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who were bringing them. But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said to them, ‘Allow the little children to come to me! Don’t forbid them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Most assuredly I tell you, whoever will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, he will in no way enter into it.’ He took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands on them.” Mark 10:13-16
• Take a “wonder walk.” Write down every time you wonder about something. Be mindful to stop and marvel. Journal about your experience.
• Jesus got away from the busyness of everyday life, to spend time with His Father to rest, reflect, and pray. Find a get-away place and enjoy the time with your Father. 

Be Inspired

Enjoy this menu of options, choosing items that satisfy your appetite alone or together. Feel free to use the Be Inspired Button even before and after Mentoring Sessions to keep pondering the month’s focus.

 Sing

• “Don’t Forget to Remember” performed by Ellie Holcomb; hear the by searching online
• “This is My Father’s World” performed by Amy Grant, Legacy Album; hear by searching online
• “God of Wonders” performed by Third Day; also as performed by Hallal Worship; hear by searching online

See

• Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent; see by searching online
• Watch on YouTube God of Wonders (2008) | Full Movie | John Whitcomb | Dan Sheedy | Don B. DeYoung ; see the video by searching online

Read 

• 1000 Gifts,  Ann Voskamp
• The Call to Wonder: Loving God Like a Child, R.C. Sproul
• Pay Attention: How to Fill your Everyday Life With Wonder, Brent Manke (search online for this at the title at brentmake.com)

Think 

•  “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things and only the wise can see them.”
  Paul Coelho
• “I have no special talent.  I am only passionately curious.”
  Albert Einstein
• “We really have the most beautiful planet in our solar system. None other can sustain life like we know it. None other has blue water and white clouds covering colorful landmasses filled with thriving, beautiful, living things like human beings.”
  Sunita Williams, Astronaut
• “For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”
  Martin Luther
• “Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.”
  Shira Tamir
• “The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.”
  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• “A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible.”
  Welsh proverb

Ideas to Help You Refresh and Renew

Summer is a season that may provide a “package” of time to refresh. We have listed a smorgasbord of ideas to celebrate this season. With some intentionality, these ideas may also help you “sabbath”. Seek God in His creation. See Him in the faces and relationships around you. Take time to savor the everyday. 

Congratulations on finishing the 2023-2024 mentoring journey together. As a mentoring pair, whether you decide to celebrate your completion, take a summer pause, or keep going, enjoy these scriptures and ideas in the sunny days ahead.

Gathering Together

• Go pick up friends and have an impromptu ice cream outing.
• Pick up pastries and eat breakfast outside at one of the downtown sculpture gardens.
• Read aloud a classic book.
• Go outside with grandkids and kids with buckets and bars of soap, and do foot washing of everyone with much love and connection.
• Buy different brands of something and have a blind taste test to see which is best (cookies, fried chicken, donuts, pizza, ice cream, etc).
• Go to the grocery store together where each person gets their favorite snacks and then have a picnic to share them. 
• Picnic by bringing out a basket of surprise foods that one person packed.
• Cook out with family. 
• Do a “make your own pizza party” at someone’s house.
• Do a “make your own nachos party” using individual pie plates.
• Make s’mores.
• Make homemade popsicles or homemade ice cream.
• Eat watermelon outside. Have a seed-spitting contest.

Finding Novelty

• Cook a new recipe.
• Go to a Farmers’ Market.
• Learn something new together.
• Discover a new museum or enjoy an old one together.
• Visit the Botanical Garden. Identify a plant that is new to you.
• Go to a star party at one of the state parks and learn to name the constellations.
• Mine a cookbook for a new dish to be grilled or served fresh without cooking.

Admiring God’s Wonders

• Lay outside under the stars.
• Spend time in nature wherever you can-mountains, beach, rivers, backyards- enjoy God’s creation. Listen for the creatures that God has placed there. Talk to him about his amazing creation!
• Hike together, admiring the wonders of the Lord.
• Spend time praising God as you lay under the stars with your favorite snack/treat. Could be ice cream too!
• Take a prayer walk in the morning as the sun is rising, thanking God for his mercies that are new every morning. Take time to write them down in your prayer journal.
• Have a simple scavenger hunt for the family. Discuss the items found and thank/talk to God about them and how he made them.

Playing 

• Join the kids on the splash pads squealing with the kids.
• Swim with children in the backyard or the neighborhood pool.
• Go golfing or miniature golfing.
• Play yard games. Some new ones might be Mölkky or Bocce Ball.
• Have a water balloon fight.
• Have a Nerf war.
• Play with glow sticks at night.
• Have an outdoor dance party.
• Ride bikes inside the university campus.
• Ride bikes or go for a walk around the local parks and lakes.

Traveling

• Travel anywhere with minimalism. Take just a small backpack with a few needed items and go somewhere fun.
• Travel to a beach.
• Traveling with kids, play I Spy,
• Traveling with kids, play Twenty Questions
• Traveling in the car, make up phrases to go with the letters on license plates. 
• Traveling, play Pass the Story in which each person tells a bit of a story and then passes the story on for someone else to continue until there is a beginning, middle, and end.

Sit at the Feet of Jesus – Praying With Scripture

Psalm 118:24 

This is the day which the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

This is our verse to memorize. 

In addition to studying the meaning and context of scripture, praying over the words can add insights into personal life applications while drawing us into the will of God. We invite you to use the steps below together as you read each session’s scripture.

Scripture Meditation

Request

“Lord, we invite you to change us. Let us see what you see and love as you love.”

Read the session’s scripture aloud, then reflect in a *three-minute silence. Repeat, reading and reflecting three times.

During the three silences, reflect on three questions respectively.  

1. What word or phrase rises up as a nudge or highlight that is interweaving with my current life situation?
2. What is the Lord asking me to do to live out the wisdom in this scripture?
3. What do I see of the Lord’s character in this scripture?

*With practice and when meditating alone, people will eventually enjoy using longer spans of silence.

Respond

Respond by praying aloud together, going back and forth between mentor and mentee. The topics are awareness, application, and adoration.

1. Each pray on awareness of how a word or phrase of the scripture interweaves with your own current life situation. 
2. Next, each pray about application of the scripture, stating what the Lord is asking you to do to live out this wisdom.  
3. Finally, each pray in adoration, praising the Lord while naming what you are seeing of the character of God in this scripture. 

Rest

Rest together silently in the Lord’s presence for 3-7 minutes. 

1. Be aware of the presence of the Lord. 
2. Take in the Love of God. 
3. Let the will of God take root. 

More Scriptures

Choose from the following passages, reading here or with your Bible open. Those wanting the Scripture Meditation steps will find them by scrolling up.

Psalm 118:24 

This is the day which the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name’s sake.
 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.
 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Jeremiah 31:25

“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

Exodus 31:17

It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

Exodus 23:12

“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.”

Philippians 4:6-7

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Isaiah 40:31

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

John 16:33 

“I have told you these things so that, in Me, you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Isaiah 41:10

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Psalm 127: 2 

“It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat: for God gives rest to His loved ones.”

Matthew 11:28-30 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  — Jesus