Mentoring ~ Bringing the adult out of the child

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Does this quote sound familiar? It probably does but in a totally different context. It sounds very today doesn’t it? The fact is that it has been attributed to Plato, a Greek philosopher who died in 347 BCE.

We are instructed in the Old Testament to ” train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Prov 22:6. The thing with today’s society, is that a vast majority of our parents do not have the understanding of the Biblical injunction so that their child will, as the Bible puts it elsewhere, grow up in the fear of the Lord.

The question that stands out is whether we, who have the knowledge, have a responsibility to attempt to share that knowledge of the Lord with the next generation? I would like to suggest that the answer to the question is yes. Father Flanagan who founded Boys Town in the early 20^th Century started it with the belief “that there is no such thing as a bad boy”.

There are a number of reasons that kids need our help, The rebel from the good family, the kid from the “good” family with poor parenting skills, the kid with a special situation whose parents are feeling the strain and need a little relief, even the parents who are isolated, by work, from their extended families and whose kids would benefit from surrogate aunts, uncles or even grandparents.

The fact is that mentoring is about providing alternatives to the life the live at home.

The following link is video by The Mentoring Project explains the whole process and relationships far better than I could so I will leave it at this and just finish with enjoy. http://vimeo.com/10394617