Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever. Daniel 12:3
We’ve been teaching relationship courses at the university level for nearly two decades and if there’s one thing we know is true about that experience it is this:
Have you discovered this insight?
Once you try to effectively convey principles or skills to someone else, you have to become expert in those principles and skills yourself. If you want to help another couple, for example, manage conflict more effectively, you can’t help but to improve this aspect of your own relationship.
Perhaps this is why this verse from Daniel notes that those who lead others to righteousness shine like the stars.
Teaching is leaving a vestige of one self in the development of another. And surely the student is a bank where you can deposit your most precious treasures. –Eugene P. Bertin
Have you considered teaching or mentoring together as a couple?
You don’t have to have a Ph.D. or be widely read to “teach.” If you have a solid marriage and the willingness to share your own struggle and successes as a couple, you have what it takes to make a difference.
And that difference doesn’t necessarily have to be made in the traditional classroom. It may come in the form of marriage mentoring, where you meet couple-to-couple.
If you do, you’re sure to experience a boomerang effect that blesses you every bit as much as you’re blessing another couple.
Give it some thought. Your willingness to walk along side another couple is likely to shape eternity.
As Henry Adams said: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
Reflect and Respond
How would your rate your readiness to “teach” or mentor another couple and why?
Go ahead, tell us in the comments.
Related Resource
For the first time ever, we’re training Marriage Mentors online in our brand new Marriage Mentoring Academy. You can train on the go – at the beach or on the bus. Learn the 12 essential skills you need to be a successful Marriage Mentor couple. You’ll also have access to lots of resources that will help ensure your success and make launching a new Marriage Mentoring ministry in your church a snap.
Sounds like a great tool.
I’d be interested to peruse the material. Would it include ongoing coaching.
We have been investing/mentoring couples for years … using “Saving Your Marriage (or 2nd Marriage) Before It Starts.” My husband, a Pastor and Police Chaplain, has married over 20 couples during the 8 years of us using this pre-marital program. We love and so do the couples we work with. Anxious to get our hands on the updated program we hear will be out this fall. Thanks for all you do!!
I have seen info on this on the website. My question is- how do you get connected with a couple for mentoring. My husband and I would love this as we are newly married and struggling in some areas but I have not seen where we can get connected.
I also have tried finding a couple in my area to mentor us first through a very difficult time right now, not enough space to explain. I have felt in my gut that one day if we survive all this mess that we would be able to mentor a whole lot of couples through the same issues, so I would love to know if there is help to begin this amazing journey I know God has for us. PLEASE HELP before it’s too late. Thank you.