Abigail Hile is a Communications major who desires to use her love for communication to mentor and disciple young women throughout her life. Her latest career aspiration is to work for a ministry agency and train short-term teams for international  trips. You can often find Abigail behind the lens of a camera. I asked her to share what she would want older women to know about what the next gen thinks about mentoring. ~ Welcome Abigail!

The next gen knows

The longer I live the more I realize how important mentoring is. When I was little I thought it was so cool when older girls took time to pour into my life by taking me shopping, out for coffee, or just making time to talk with me. As I have grown older, I try to be intentional about reaching out to the younger girls in the church. However, it was only this year that I realized that I still need a mentor and I don’t believe that I will ever not need a mentor.

Wanting mentoring

I would love for older women to know that the younger generation wants to be mentored; we want you in our lives and we want you to walk alongside of us. We want your advice and value your opinion. When discussing this with my mom she said, “But, would you want a lady to just walk up to you and say, ‘I want to mentor you?’” And my response is no – no one wants to be told that they need to be mentored. However, we both agreed that while the younger generation doesn’t want the older to approach them about being mentored, we do want the older generation to be available.

Available for mentoring

I would love for older women to know that they should be making themselves available to the younger generation of young women. Some examples of ladies in my church who are making themselves available are the ones that approach me to go out for coffee with them, the ones who ask about how my birthday went, the ones who send me cards, and the ones who tell me that they’re praying for me. I would feel comfortable asking any of these godly women for advice because they have made themselves available to me.

A model for mentoring

Jesus modeled mentoring in the best way when He intentionally chose 12 men in whom He was going to pour into during His time on the earth. Ladies, please be intentional about who you will pick to pour into during your life on earth that you may model the life of our Savior.

Older women, please make yourselves available to the younger generation. We love it when the older women show interest in our lives and this life was never meant to be lived alone.

To the women who are making themselves available, you mean the world to the younger generation. Your interest in our lives does not go unnoticed and we appreciate you more than you could ever know.

TWEET This about mentoring –> Older women, please make yourselves available to the #nextgen http://wp.me/p2H4E4-1Dr #Mentoring Are you available?

A final word from Julie:  Do you want to be available to influence a younger woman, maybe even a next gen woman? Try these 4 steps to start:

1. Ask God to draw your attention to a younger woman already in your life. As she comes to mind in the next few days, start to pray for her and for an opportunity to talk to her.
2. When the opportunity comes (you prayed for it!), ask her if she would meet you for a coffee sometime.
3. Meet her for coffee and ask her about her life now, what she thinks about her future, and how you can pray for her. And drink coffee together … or something in a cup.
4. That’s not so hard, is it? You’ve started! Now make another date, and let God create something beautiful.