Spiritual mentoring between women

Transforming together – authentic spiritual mentoring
By Ele Parrott
Published at Moody Publishers

About the book
Young women are crying out for someone older to care about them, to help them. Older women desire to be useful and productive. Those who have invested years of walking with the Lord themselves desire to be teamed up with this generation of younger women who are yearning for someone to show them how to walk through life with genuine faith in Christ.

Transforming Together presents the model for genuine spiritual mentoring through the power and work of Christ in the lives of women faithfully pouring into one another. Women, both young and old, will appreciate the dual focus on the roles of mentor and mentee. Building on real life testimonies and her experience as a committed mentor, Ele Parrott will guide women as they seek to walk with one another to greater faithfulness in Christ.

Who is Ele Parrott?
Ele Parrott, a Biblical Counselor by profession, is the Director of Member Care for the Paraclete Mission Group. She worked as a missionary in the Latin community with OCI for 12 years, has worked in women’s and children’s ministry in her local church and has also been involved in Christian Camping ministry. She continues to lead Bible studies and is the head Mentor Mom at Sun Valley Community Church in Gilbert, Arizona. In addition to Transforming Together, Ele has authored a Spanish-language musical, El Futboles es mi Vida as well as Spanish materials for use in Christian homes and Sunday School classes.

Ele Parrot and her husband of 35 years, Don, the President and CEO of Finishers Project, have four grown children and three grandchildren.

My Thoughts
Being a pastor’s wife, I was interested in the possibility on learning more about mentoring. I just wished I had a mentor with whom I could share my thoughts, my frustrations, my sadness as well as my joys. I believe that God will provide this mentor for me someday. But in the meantime, I want to learn more about becoming one for whoever will approach me in becoming their mentors someday.

What I didn’t expect from this book was to be mentored indirectly by Ele. She doesn’t know about it but she opened up some insights in me and made me think about me and my relationship with Christ. She laid down some simple facts about growing with God and I look forward to apply what she taught me.

I also discovered that right now at this time of my life, I am definitively not ready whatsoever to mentor someone but I am in need of a mentor. So I pray that God will guide me to find this mentor in my life.

Ele also suggested that “a spiritual mentor is in a season of life that requires less of her in her own sphere. Her children are grown or are old enough to allow her time to pray in depth, to be in the Word, and to give time to others outside of her immediate family.” When I read that, I was at first disappointed. You see I have 4 small children aged 8 and under (the youngest being 18 months). My 8 year old is quite independent with a book or even homeschool work but the other three is quite another story. So when I read these words, I was disappointed because I knew that God was telling me not now. Not now? But Lord I am a pastor’s wife after all I will need to guide others eventually! It’s true that at times I might be asked for guidance… but I must also understand that I do not have the flexibility necessary for mentoring.

To be a spiritual mentor to someone you need to be a woman of the Word of God, a woman of faith and a woman of prayer. You need flexibility and time to give which I lack right now due to the fact that my own kids are too young. I got the message from God. I will postpone my thoughts about becoming a mentor. I will grow in my relationship with Him and guide my own children for now.

Ele also challenges the reader to spend a three-month period to study God’s Word with only the Bible and no other kind of book. I like this idea. I think it’s important for anyone who would like to become a spiritual mentor for anyone that this person knows what he/she talks about – especially when it comes to God’s Word.

So for now, as I came to the realization that it isn’t a good time for me to become a spiritual mentor for someone, it will be Jesus and me. Plain and simple. Nothing else. And I think I will take up on her challenge to put aside all books about the Bible except the Bible itself for three months. No bible study, no fill-in-the-blanks kind of book. Just the Bible - every day - for three months.

If Ele – or anyone who knows her – would come to read this review, I just want to say that I wished that I could be mentored by you. You have opened up a whole new perspective in Bible Study for me and I am forever thankful for it. I just wished I would know you better by having you in my life. God bless!

Transforming Together is available everywhere even on amazon.ca and indigo.ca.