Why Our Kids Need Godly Mentors
By Movieguide® Contributor
In a recent episode of her podcast, actress Candace Cameron Bure spoke with Dr. Josh and Christi Straub about the importance of Godly mentors in our children’s lives.
“I think as parents, making sure that we surround ourselves with other families and other adults in our children’s lives who can also speak truth into them [is important],” Dr. Josh said. “We will say the same thing to our children over and over and over again, and…it’s going in one ear and out the other. And when another adult happens to come in who says that exact thing? And they’re like, hey, mom, hey, dad… And you’re like, I’ve been saying that to you for years.”
Christi chimed in with a valuable lesson she learned about influence in a child’s life.
“I remember someone teaching us early on. Imagine…a five-frame picture frame, and like, what are the five other influences? Like praying for those five mentors in your child’s life. Like who’s going to fill those frames? Because that’s so impactful.”
She went on to explain how much a mentor in high school impacted her young life.
“I had a mentor. I remember in high school, she was like one of our youth leaders, and she led a Bible study. And I know that I am I’m partly who I am today because of her,” Christi said. “Like, I wouldn’t have had the courage to even leave home, like to go away to university. It was because of her influence. And I’ve thought of that so many times through my life. Like if she hadn’t come in.”
Regarding mentors, Bure shared a sweet story about the late Bob Saget, her FULL HOUSE co-star, and how he influenced her life.
“Bob is 6’4” or 6’5”. He’s really tall. I’m 5’2”, and at 10 years old, I was probably five feet. I mean…not a very tall person. He got down, like, stooped down on his knee and got eye to eye with me. And he was like, ‘Hi, I’m Bob, I’m gonna be playing your dad, and we’re going to have a great time. And if there’s anything, you know, we can do to have fun and just be comfortable saying these lines, you just let me know.’ And he was my friend from day one. I mean, from the first moment I met him.”
Saget died in 2022.
“You taught me to feel deeply at such a young age. You were never afraid or ashamed to share your emotions, to cry, to love, to laugh and say it out loud,” Bure recalled shortly after his death. “We’ve always been so deeply connected since the day we met when I was 10 years old. You weren’t just like a father, but one of my closest friends in life. This hurts like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”
Who we allow in our children’s lives is just as important as how we treat our children. Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.”
It is our job as parents to facilitate the instruction that our children receive, whether from us or someone else, and to make sure there are Godly mentors and leaders in their lives.
Movieguide® previously reported on Bure’s podcast:
Candace Cameron Bure recently hosted Dr. Josh and Christi Straub on her podcast to learn how parents can build a good atmosphere for their home.
“I always talk about fighting for peace in your home,” Dr. Josh began. “You have to war for peace; you have to pray into it, have to fight for it, because the world is trying to create, it’s just chaos, right, and so we have to pay attention to the atmosphere of our home to identify how we can make sure that our homes are that place of [peace]…”
For homes that could use some more peace, Dr. Josh encourages parents to determine the area that needs improvement and devise a plan to work on it.
“Maybe it’s exhaustion, maybe it’s anger, maybe it’s complaining, maybe it’s fear. What is the spirit in your home that you just feel like this is bringing us all down as a family and identifying that and being able to say, ‘Okay, what is one small shift we can make to be able to start shifting the atmosphere?’”
