When did you decide to go to college? I have asked this question to dozens of people. Most stop and think before they reply:
‘I always knew I was going.’
Where do we get our vision for life? It happens in so many unplanned ways. Yet for many, the future is caged, not by a lack of opportunity, but by a lack of vision. The obstacles have been imprinted within.
I was speaking to a very angry mom. Her 8-year-old, blue-eyed boy, stood cowering, with downcast eyes, beside her.
‘You’re going to end up in jail, just like your father.’
Our vision for life is birthed and also incarcerated in many subtle unplanned ways. This mom was overwhelmed, trying to do a job that God designed to be done by two.
A mentor is a calming force in a child’s life. He has fresh eyes and ears. He also has access to the wisdom of God as he prays up and shows up.
The goal is not college. It is to allow the child to experience God’s love through us. It is to listen and to learn how God has uniquely bent this precious child. Then the mentor can give him a vision and the way to experience God’s plan for their life. If not, he or she will grow up within that incarcerated vision and give birth to the next generation, unable to give what they have not received. And the cycle continues…
But God loves each of His children. He has called you and me to step out of our own agenda and into His. His is a loving agenda of freedom, through rebirth.
We are blessed to be a blessing and blessed to be apart of the Creator’s agenda. Can we get our minds around that vision?
John Cragg
Executive Director
Long Island Youth Mentoring