LESSONS FROM MY MENTOR.

Photo by Kelsey Chance on Unsplash

There's a couple in my church community group that have quickly become my second parents. Honestly, going into their home is, in the nicest way possible, like a sigh of relief. I feel like I'm at home and yet at the same time, I feel like I've entered my therapist's office at the same time.

I remember back in the fall of 2018 when we connected over prayer and that one prayer soon turned into a Sunday lunch and that turned into texts and going to church events together and now it's like home. 

My gratitude for them, their wisdom, their love, and their support could never be fully expressed in words. These are the people who have hugged me when I was scared, prayed over my anxiety and heartbreak, who spoke life into my heart, who encouraged me to pursue my dreams, and who have pushed me to wait for the right man.

Little did they know, I prayed long and hard for a close-knit church community and mentors like them. It took a couple years, but the wait was so worth it. And little did I know that these people would literally live just beyond my backyard.

This couple is serious couple goals for me--watching them love each other, love their family, and love their community--and doing so in a true, authentic way that you know is not faked.

They've also taught me the importance of prayer--and not just saying you'll pray for someone, but stopping what you're doing and praying right then and there in the middle of the living room.

They've mastered the art of invitation and hospitality, creating a home that is always open for others to enter in and creating a space for our community to continue to converse and connect even after the our dinner is officially "over."

But the greatest lesson I have learned from this couple is that we all need someone we can trust and be 100% honest and vulnerable with. My mentors truly know everything about me and they love me just the same. I have never been this open and shared so deeply with people before and also have never felt so safe to do so. They ask me the questions that I need to confront myself with and yet they do it with the most genuine love at the same time.