Mentoring ~ Bringing the adult out of the child

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their
parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their
morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"
Does this quote sound familiar? It probably does but in a totally different context. It
sounds very today doesn’t it? The fact is that it has been attributed to Plato, a Greek
philosopher who died in 347 BCE.
We are instructed in the Old Testament to ” train a child in the way he should go, and
when he is old he will not turn from it.” Prov 22:6. The thing with today’s society,
is that a vast majority of our parents do not have the understanding of
the Biblical injunction so that their child will, as the Bible puts it
elsewhere, grow up in the fear of the Lord.
The question that stands out is whether we, who have the knowledge,
have a responsibility to attempt to share that knowledge of the Lord with
the next generation? I would like to suggest that the answer to the
question is yes. Father Flanagan who founded Boys Town in the early 20 th
Century started it with the belief “that there is no such thing as a bad
boy”.
There are a number of reasons that kids need our help, The rebel from the
good family, the kid from the “good” family with poor parenting skills, the kid with a
special situation whose parents are feeling the strain and need a little relief, even the
parents who are isolated, by work, from their extended families and whose kids
would benefit from surrogate aunts, uncles or even grandparents.
The fact is that mentoring is about providing alternatives to the life the live at home.
The following link is video by The Mentoring Project explains the whole process and
relationships far better than I could so I will leave it at this and just finish with enjoy.
http://vimeo.com/10394617