It’s been said that we learn two ways; mentors or mistakes.

Think about that. We can learn from some one or some thing. We can be instructed, coached,
motivated, helped or guided by someone with more wisdom, more knowledge, more skill, more
talent or more strength than we have ourselves – or – we can do things our own way, in our
own limited understanding, with our own limited skills or resources. When we allow ourselves
to be mentored, we can avoid many mistakes that we would make otherwise.

Over many years of pastoring, I’ve watched people make a lot of mistakes in their marriage,
their parenting, their finances, their health – poor decisions – all because they refused to
learn from someone who could help them. Did they learn from their mistakes? Probably so, but
those are hard lessons that led to a lot of frustration and heartache.

I’ve preached a lot of sermons through the years that would have helped some folks with problems
they are facing, but they never showed up to hear those sermons! I’m amazed at people who say
they can’t afford to buy an audio sermon series or won’t buy a book written by someone with a lot
of wisdom in a certain area, but they will pay a lot more for the mistakes they’ll make because
they refused to be mentored.

Moses mentored Joshua. Elijah mentored Elisha. Naomi mentored Ruth. Timothy and Titus learned
a lot from Paul. Who are you willing to learn from? Your future is being determined by who you
are willing to listen to.

Go For God
Pastor Bruce Freeman