The Mentoring Mother

I am currently reading a wonderful book by Mary Farrar written in 1994 called Choices: For Women Who Long To Discover Life's Best, and I wanted to share an excerpt that touched me today. In this chapter, the author is expanding on the passages in Titus 2 regarding womanhood, and she is writing about the role of being a mentor. I just felt that this was such important wisdom, especially for those mothers who have daughters. I have not had this blessing as of yet (though I have certainly been blessed with my sons), but I look forward to a day that I might be able to live out this mentoring relationship with my own daughter. Farrar writes,

"I am convinced that God intended the primary mentoring relationship among women, by far, to be the mother-daughter relationship...

When mothers and daughters lose their ability to communicate, when they become distanced and unable to enjoy one another, when they grow to resent one another or feel the need to control each other - the most valuable mentoring relationship of their lives has been lost. Without a doubt, this is the top reason for the mentoring crisi among the women of our nation. Daughters are no longer mentored by their mothers.

Mothers, we need to make it a high priority to stay close to our daughters. To understand them. To be part of their lives. To lie in bed late at night and talk together heart to heart. To be constantly encouraging and listening - ever listening. To do special things that let them know we are thinking special thoughts of them. To ask the tough questions. To refuse to let conflict slide by. We cannot afford to let the natural distances turn into miles, and then years. There will never be a more valuable mentoring relationship in your daughter's life than the one she has in you."