The silver-gray VW SUV stopped at the light on Highway 20 just in front of me. On the back of the car was a sticker with the words “Little explorer on board ” in cursive letters. As the father-in-law and grandfather of two firefighters, I know the sticker intends to alert first responders that a child is more than likely in the vehicle.

 

I mused about that idea for the rest of my drive home. What if we had a sticker like that on our Bibles? 

 

Spiritual mentoring is too often understood as only something between one person and an older, wise mentor—end of sentence. 

 

The driver of this SUV wants others to know they have a little explorer on board. Would they consider that their spiritual maturity, discipline, and growth have similar implications for their children or grandchildren?

Blessed to be a blessing

We often say we are blessed to be a blessing: a natural outcome of spiritual depth. It isn’t like a musician learning a solo for an artistic performance of one. Instead, we are part of an orchestra called the Body of Christ. I did both in my Junior High years. I learned my solo music for the state competition on the baritone and performed successfully, but I was just as interested in learning the bass lines for the Glen Ellyn Junior High band. On rare occasions, our section of baritones might have a solo part for a few lines but always “for the sake of others.”  We learned, not for our own aggrandizement but because we understood we had a part to play alongside the flutes, clarinets, oboes, saxophones, and French horns. As we learned to play our music well, we knew we were part of a larger purpose.

 

Spiritual mentoring invites an individual to go deep into their faith and to seek what Paul called us to in Ephesians 4:15-16: “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Children learn what they live.

The whole body” includes our children, grandchildren, and other “little explorers” we have the privilege to know and love.  As a young pastor, I preached a sermon using a phrase I had heard somewhere: Children learn what they live. The problem was I was also a young father for whom those words sometimes chastened me even as they encouraged me. I had to be aware that my spiritual journey wasn’t private but meant for the orchestra of my “family” of relationships.

 

We don’t have “little explorer” Bibles or stickers to sell; we just have this encouragement: Remember that they, too, are invited to grow into Christlikeness. Your legacy in their lives is lived every day as you commit to your own growth

 

Practice: How might you share your mentoring experience with the children of your life, little explorers on board?

 

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