Today's post was written by Vivian Nelson who is married to Bill Nelson, loves to sew, and has a heart for teaching younger women.

Our approach as women to this question will have epic proportion as we carry out the mission of our faith family, “to glorify Christ by making disciples of all nations.” You may be asking yourself, “How is that possible?” It is possible only by virtue of our fully understanding and embracing two key words, "mentor" and "disciple."

Frequently, we are reticent about our understanding of terms and ideas that are used and discussed in our environment even as a body of believers. As such, we shy away and miss the opportunity to contribute in ways that will lead to epic proportion. Now that your interest is peaked, it begs other questions: "Do we fully understand the role of a mentor?" "Has being or making a disciple become perfunctory and lost its real meaning?"

The 1913 unabridged edition of Webster offers a very good meaning of mentor, "a wise and faithful counselor or monitor." To further expand on that meaning, "to serve as a trusted counselor or teacher to (another person)." Nothing too mysterious about that; however, culturally, we have defaulted to using “accountable” in lieu of mentor when in effect the two words are directionally the same. Of course we know what disciple means - Jesus had twelve of them! Then we all agree that a disciple is "one who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another." Just reading these definitions should have created an “AHA” moment! Mentoring affords the means by which to come along side another person as a trusted teacher or counselor, thereby instilling the means by which that person becomes a disciple in the ways of everyday life and the Word of God, resulting in epic proportion. Degree of difficulty, very little, but are you willing to do it?

If someone has asked you to help by keeping them accountable, chances are you have become their mentor. In order to foster accountability and from the definitions above, you must be trusted, faithful, or dependable and willing to share what experience has taught you about life. Easy enough right? Many of you reading this, however, are still uncertain, citing poor knowledge of the Word. The beauty of God’s Word is no matter how long you have lived by it or how recently you have come to know it, it is “new” with each reading and study of it. Why not take the opportunity to grow with someone as a mentor or accountability partner as you read and study the Word together to become better disciples? If we are to make disciples of all nations, then we as women must be willing to pick up the mantle here in our own congregation. There are so many, many opportunities.

To mentor or not to mentor is a question only you can answer.