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Mentoring: Should young men be mentors? Some thoughts.
Our Battalion is working hard each year to build a more and more robust one-on-one mentoring culture in our Battalion (Unit# 8093). We are not where we want to be, but there is an expectation that each young man will be regularly mentored by an older more spiritually mature man.
Generally we encourage this to be father’s, pastors, older men in the church, or a Brigade leader. But every once in a while the question comes up about how old, or young, should this mentor be. Good question!
Generally speaking we do not encourage mentors to be other young men in the Battalion. This is because it is important that there be a certain level of spiritual maturity that is rare in teen guys. There also needs to be a certain age difference in order for the mentor to come with the respect and authority he needs.
I have two examples that came up relatively recently I wanted to share.
We said no to this one:
I had a young man in our battalion (14 years old) ask if his corporal (16 Years old) could be his mentor. I must say that the young man chose well. His Corporal is an amazing young man, mature for his age, and a great example inside and outside our Battalion. But it was clear to me that the age difference and the maturity level was not quite there. I suggested instead that the younger brigadier look to his corporal as an older and mor mature friend and that they cultivate that kind of relationship. They decided that they would call each day to read and discuss the proverb for that day of the month.
We said yes to these:
Our sergeant and another on of our corporals, however, (18 and 16 respectively), were selected by two 12 year old twins who are a huge handful and Battalion and especially at home. because the age difference was more significant and especially because of the huge amount of maturity in both of these older non-comms we said yes. This was in conjunction with the twins’ mom and dad. I am working with the non-comms each week to review how things went and to give advice on how to move forward each week. It is a testament top the maturity of these young men that they regularly reach out to the parents. Recently the 16 year old, in speaking with the twins father said this, “How can I assist you in what you are working on at home with the boys? I want to help you and not be a hinderance.”
I hope that these examples help and I would love to hear your own thoughts and experiences.
You can see these two guys in the pictures below during our weekly meeting today. The fish pictures are from a brief outing that one of the mentors took his mentee on.
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