Do you need a “Life Coach” or a “Mentor”?

I have bee doing a lot of reading lately.  One of the topics I have been reading about is “Life Coaching”.  While reading the introduction of my current pick I came across a quote from reporter Jim Nauton:

“The ever more challenging character of modern life has created a market for men and women that can provide, for a fee, a service that older generations once performed for younger generations.  Since World War II, increased mobility and the decline of family and community ties have reduced intergenerational contact, with the result that a lot of the support structures in people’s live have broken down.”

Basically, what I am reading is that people are no longer taking an interest in other people in the act of encouraging others strengths and building them up (mentoring).  In order to receive that we need to go to others for a fee (life coaching) to help us through this journey of life.

I have begun “life coaching” for teen girls.  Basically I wanted to give teen girls support that they may not otherwise receive.  I am really feeling conflicted about the whole thing.  Shouldn’t these girls have “people” in their lives that they can reach out to?  I feel badly about taking money for something that we should be able to receive for free.

The words in Titus 2 are there for a reason.

“Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don't want anyone looking down on God's Message because of their behaviour. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.” verses 1-5 The Message

“God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honouring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.”  11-14 The Message

What a difference we, as individuals, could make if we started actively living the Word.  It’s like a light in the darkness.  Imagine a huge dark space and then you see a glimmer of light in one corner, and then another somewhere in the middle, then you notice a shimmer of light out of the corner of your eye.  Then instead of individual areas of light you are noticing a slight glow over the entire area.  The glow brightens and dulls but you can see the light.

That is what happens when we choose to be the light-- the hands, the feet and the love of Jesus Christ to the people around us. 

Will you join me in being the light that the world so desperately needs?