• What qualities are important in being mentored by someone?
• What qualities are important in being a mentor to someone?
• Share a specific situation in which you were grateful for a mentoring relationship.

Read Exodus 18.

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, was the priest of Midian. He heard about everything that God had done for Moses and his people, the Israelites, and how the Lord had led the Israelites out of Egypt. ² Now Moses had sent his wife Zipporah to Jethro, his father-in-law, ³ along with his two sons. The first son was named Gershom,^[a] because when he was born, Moses said, “I am a stranger in a foreign country.” ⁴ The other son was named Eliezer,^[b] because when he was born, Moses said, “The God of my father is my help. He saved me from the king of Egypt.”

⁵ So Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Moses’ wife and his two sons and went to Moses. He was camped in the desert near the mountain of God. ⁶ Jethro had sent a message ahead to Moses that said, “I, Jethro, your father-in-law, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

⁷ So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. After the two men asked about each other’s health, they went into Moses’ tent. ⁸ Moses told his father-in-law everything the Lord had done to the king and the Egyptians to help Israel. He told about all the problems they had faced along the way and how the Lord had saved them.

⁹ Jethro was very happy to hear all the good things the Lord had done for Israel when he had saved them from the Egyptians. ¹⁰ He said, “Praise the Lord. He has saved you from the Egyptians and their king, and he has saved the people from the power of the Egyptians. ¹¹ Now I know the Lord is greater than all gods, because he did this to those who looked down on Israel.” ¹² Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, gave a whole burnt offering and other sacrifices to God. Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to Moses’ father-in-law to eat the holy meal together before God.

¹³ The next day Moses solved disagreements among the people, and the people stood around him from morning until night. ¹⁴ When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What is all this you are doing for the people? Why are you the only one to solve disagreements? All the people are standing around you from morning until night!”

¹⁵ Then Moses said to his father-in-law, “It is because the people come to me for God’s help in solving their disagreements. ¹⁶ When people have a disagreement, they come to me, and I decide who is right. I tell them God’s laws and teachings.”

¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “You are not doing this right. ¹⁸ You and the people who come to you will get too tired. This is too much work for you; you can’t do it by yourself. ¹⁹ Now listen to me, and I will give you some advice. I want God to be with you. You must speak to God for the people and tell him about their disagreements. ²⁰ Warn them about the laws and teachings, and teach them the right way to live and what they should do. ²¹ But choose some capable men from among the people—men who respect God, who can be trusted, and who will not change their decisions for money. Make these men officers over the people, to rule over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. ²² Let these officers solve the disagreements among the people all the time. They can bring the hard cases to you, but they can decide the simple cases themselves. That will make it easier for you, because they will share the work with you. ²³ If you do this as God commands you, then you will be able to do your job, and all the people will go home with their disagreements solved.”

²⁴ So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. ²⁵ He chose capable men from all the Israelites and made them leaders over the people; they were officers over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. ²⁶ These officers solved disagreements among the people all the time. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but they decided the simple cases themselves.

²⁷ So Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro went back to his own home.

Jethro and Moses didn’t use mentoring buzz words, yet they lived a mentoring relationship. The Bible tells us to pass down what we know and to learn from the examples of others. Mentoring is a biblical concept even though the word mentoring never appears in the Bible.

What stands out to you about the mentoring relationship between Jethro and Moses?

A godly mentor provides invaluable counsel, helping someone grow spiritually through both encouraging and challenging experiences. A worldly mentor can cause extensive damage with misdirection, unrealistic expectations, and untruthful values. Each mentoring relationship looks different because it involves different people in different situations. Mentoring cannot be crammed into a formula. In order to biblically mentor and be mentored, you must seek and trust God’s guidance and timing.

Consider what the following verses reveal about biblical mentoring.

• Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble. (Proverbs 13:20)
• And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
• These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. (1 Corinthians 10:11)

Passing the baton of faith doesn’t insure the person or generation behind us will not drop the baton. Even though the people of Israel served God under the leadership of Joshua, the following generation abandoned God (Joshua 24, Judges 2). The Bible is scattered with examples of one person’s faithfulness followed by a child’s rejection of God. We can never assume people following us will observe and “catch” the faith we’re living. But let’s not let the possibility of a dropped baton pause us. We must run forward. Let’s be intentional in the steps we take and the people running alongside us.

Mentoring can seem overwhelming when we consider our lives entwined with others for a lifetime. The truth is God rarely yokes us with another person for a lifetime. More often, mentoring happens in moments or seasons. After Jethro helped Moses, he “returned to his own land.” (Exodus 18:27)

Write four notes.

• Send a thank you note to someone who has mentored you in the past.
• Send a thank you note to someone who is currently impacting your life.
• Write a note to someone who will mentor you in the future. You likely don’t know who it is. Just share what you most need from the mentoring relationship. Express your hope.
• Write a note to someone you will mentor in the future. Perhaps there is someone who comes to mind, or you might have general ideas of the person in whom you will invest. Share what you most want to provide through a mentoring relationship.