2 Timothy 1:6 “…Stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you…”(AMP)
Friend, you cannot make money from your ‘corn’, until your charcoal becomes red hot! Mandino calls it “straining your potentials until it cries for mercy”. It is at this point, that your potentials begin to feed you.
So, how do I fan my talents to flame? There are several ways but the one I’ll love to talk about now is what I call mentoring. In our text, Paul was a great influence in the life of Timothy. He not only helped him discover his talent, he helped him fan it to flame.
Mentoring is learning through the pains of others. There is this popular saying, “behind every successful man there is a woman”, but I normally like to say that, “behind every great and successful man or woman, there is a mentor!”
Ruth had Naomi, Esther had Mordecai, Elisha had Elijah, Solomon had David, Samuel had Eli while Jesus had John the Baptist. Even though John became offended in Christ, he was the one that commissioned him into ministry, and of course, Timothy had Paul. All through history, we will see men and women who have had an influence on us, one way or the other. There will always be people with similar gifting to yours who have gone ahead of you. Locate them and learn from them.
Mike Murdock says, “Your friends love you the way you’re but your mentor loves you too much to leave you the way you’re.”
There are two major ways to learn. i) By Mistakes (Trial and error)  ii) By mentoring (going to school, reading books, talking to a mentor etc). An average human uses the first but smart and great men uses the second. You will not live long enough to make all the mistakes in life and correct them so why not learn from the mistakes of others? A wise man said, “Wise men never make the same mistake once”. Why must you repeat a mistake that another man has made? (to be continued)
Love you BiG
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