Are you ready to move your life forward and break through the boundaries that have been holding you back? Having a mentor in your life is one of the greatest gifts you can receive. This is someone who walks alongside you and asks the right questions at the right time.
My parents came to know the Lord when I was 12. A couple of families took them under their wing, discipling and mentoring them. Some of the lessons they taught such as how to dive into Scripture and study the Bible for ourselves are skills I still lean on 50+ years later.
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (Psalm 119:105).
That’s exactly what good mentorship does. It shines on your possible next right step, even when you can’t see the whole road.
I also had a 16-year stint in the corporate world after our son was grown. While there, I was blessed to sit beside, talk to, and learn from others. Their mentorship instilled wisdom I still use today in my writing and journaling life. (Who knew you could learn lessons about faith and writing while working in the recycling industry?)
One of the most important qualities of an impactful mentor was this: they asked me insightful questions. My answers helped them help me. And just as much, my answers helped me help myself.
I’m blessed now to mentor and encourage writers, authors, and fellow journalers in their walk with the Lord. Before working with someone one-on-one, I ask a litany of “mentor onboarding” questions. Here they are. The same ones I’ve asked myself on my own journaling-to-Jesus journey. Grab your journal, sit with the Lord, and let these be a time of honest self-reflection.
1. What’s your definition of success?
My definition isn’t your definition. We all carry different values, seasons, and life situations. In the writing world, one person dreams of the bestseller list, another wants a certain income from a book, and another feels the deepest success when a single reader emails to say how much a book helped them. Knowing your definition of success helps you “read the thermometer” on everything you do.
It applies to everything in life. Trying to lose weight? What does your success look like? Is it a number on the scale, or a feeling in your body? Do you want to grow closer to God through Scripture? Is success reading the Bible cover to cover, memorizing verses, or gaining deep insight into one topic that’s been on your heart?
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3).
Success, biblically speaking, was never about the applause. It was and is about faithfulness to what God set in front of you. Define your version of success, then hold it up next to His.
2. What’s your vision of your outcome?
Some call this the goal, but your vision is what drives the goal. When you reach that place of success, what does it look like around you? What do you feel? What’s the deep-down “thing” that will fuel the fire for the actions you need to take?
In my writing world, it’s the stack of published books on the shelf, knowing my words touched someone. Maybe for you, it’s a well-loved journal, its pages soft from use, one day held by your grandchildren as a legacy of your faith.
“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it” (Habakkuk 2:2).
There’s something sacred about putting a vision on paper. If you’ve spent any time journaling to Jesus, you already know. God didn’t just tell Habakkuk to think about the vision. He told him to write it down. What’s the vision you’re holding in your heart, and have you written it plainly yet?
3. What do you want in 3 to 5 years?
A big, holy, audacious goal rarely arrives instantly. Those achievements take long, faithful work. There are two ways people miss them: not setting goals at all, or not giving themselves enough time to reach them.
There was a season in my life when I found it hard to look beyond my nose, much less 3 to 5 years down the road. But when a mentor pounded this question into my hard-headed noggin, I started actually moving toward something. At the time, I was learning to build an online business, but the idea of “writing a book” kept quietly tapping on my heart.
I had a habit of putting big goals in a box and shoving them to the back of the closet in my mind. I preferred to stay frustrated and stuck rather than risk reaching. But one day, I gave that goal a chance. I looked into what it would take to publish a book. It peeked out of the box. YIKES! I shoved it right back in. Eventually, though, I let it fully out. All sorts of goodness followed. I stumbled into a group, submitted a piece to a collaborative book, and got officially bitten by the self-publishing bug.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
My greatest advice: don’t wait to write down your big, God-given dreams. Please don’t wait like I did.
4. What’s tripping you up right now (your obstacles)?
Every mentor I’ve had has made me look squarely at my obstacles. A life spent avoiding what’s keeping you stuck is a life that stays stuck. Life isn’t a bed of roses, and things get in the way. Sometimes we have control, sometimes we don’t — but we always have control over how we respond.
What tripped me up in my past was not knowing the publishing world. Many a lunch hour was spent scouring the internet for answers. Then came the obstacle of time, and I had every excuse in the book. But once I truly admitted to myself that I wanted to pursue writing, I found the time. My first real sacrifice came when a friend and I worked through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron together. I learned that when I genuinely wanted something, I would sacrifice for it — even if it meant rising an hour early. 4AM is a dark, quiet time for writing.
“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).
Naming your obstacle honestly, in the quiet of a journal page before the Lord, is the first step to running unhindered.
5. What do you have the power to control?
We have more power than we think. The enemy would rather we stay tangled up in our own monkey minds. So here’s my soap-box moment: unless you’re a small child, God gave you as one of His created beings, a free will. You have power over your time. Power over your thoughts. Power over your choices. Whatever is tripping you up, you have more say over it than you realize.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”
(2 Timothy 1:7).
With God, all things are possible, dear one. The power He’s given you isn’t for hoarding. It’s for using.
6. Knowing your obstacles and your power, what strategy or action can you take right now?
This is where the rubber meets the road. Once you’ve named your obstacles and recognized the power you have, what can you actually do starting now?
I know a friend whose obstacle was finding time to write. She had grown adult children still at home, and she did all the cooking and cleaning herself. Together we looked at her week, and I suggested her adult children take turns making dinner twice a week. Also, for them to handle their own laundry and dish clean-up while they were at it. She implemented the plan and gained 7 hours a week to write. In a few months, she finally finished writing the book that was burning in her heart.
I’ve mentioned my own habit of rising an hour early to journal and write. Even now, after my husband leaves for work, I hold a blocked-off stretch of time before my morning check-in with my aging parents. I don’t always know what the day holds, but I guard my mornings as fiercely as I can. This is my writing time and my time with the Lord.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).
A vision without action is just a nice thought. What’s one small, concrete step you can take this week?
7. Tell me more — the story of “your story, their story, the truth.”
I have fun with this prompt with the writers I mentor. I even use it on myself when I notice I’m saying “I can’t” too often. When someone talks about their obstacles or their dreams, I like to flip the story line. I’ll ask who their favorite author is, or someone else in their world they admire. Then I ask them to imagine what “story” that person would tell about the very same obstacle or goal.
This little role-playing exercise often leads to a breakthrough. It gets people out of their own head and helps them start thinking with fresh eyes. From there, they can write a new narrative and plant new, affirming seeds. Honestly, between changing the stories I tell myself and leaning into Scripture and truth, I’ve talked myself off the ledge of quitting this whole writing thing more than once.
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
That’s the real work behind this question. It’s not just imagining a better story, but taking every discouraging thought captive and replacing it with truth. That’s journaling to Jesus in its purest form.
8. What are you reading?
Writers are readers, or at least in my opinion, we should be. If I’m not reading to learn more about the craft, I’m reading someone in my genre (iron sharpens iron), or I’m reading something entirely different, just to be filled up or entertained. The same goes for our walk with God. If I’m not in the Word, I’m not being shaped by it.
I’ll write that again. If you’re not in the Word, you’re not being shaped by the Word.
I’ve heard more than one children’s book agent tell a room full of writers that we should read at least 100 books in the genre and age group we want to write for. That always gets a gasp from the crowd. But the principle holds everywhere. What you feed your mind shapes what you produce.
“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night… Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).
Truthfully, I never imagined the questions my mentors put me through in the corporate world would shape my writing and my faith so deeply. But they did then. They still do now. Life is life, whether you’re working a job, working out a marriage, or working through a page in your journal with Jesus.
Grab your journal and sit with these 8 questions this week. Which one is God nudging you to answer honestly?
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