The Bible tells the compelling story a beautiful, humble woman named Hannah.  She was unable to have something she wanted most – a child and was ridiculed by other women.

  One day Eli, the priest, saw her in the temple weeping and vowing to God that if He gave her a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord.  God heard her cry and answered her with a son that she called Samuel.  When Samuel was weaned, she took him to the temple with a joyful heart and left him in the care of Eli who could mentor her son to be a man of God.  Her song of praise to God recorded in 1 Samuel 2 is one of the most beautiful songs recorded in the entire Bible.  Hannah, who had waited all her life for a son to hold, to love, to proudly watch grow into a man turned Samuel over to Eli and returned home – a several day trip.

The story captures our attention as God speaks to young Samuel 3 times, but he doesn’t know who is speaking.  He runs to Eli, thinking Eli is calling him.  Eli realizes it is God and instructs Samuel how to respond.  Under Eli’s tutorage, Samuel grows to become a mighty man of faith – the one who leads Israel until he anoints their first 2 kings.  Samuel remained faithful to the God he loved.  I’m sure he remembered the sacrifice of his mother and the godly teaching of Eli.  He was mentored by 2 honest people who cared deeply about him becoming all that God wanted him to become.  The intriguing complexity in this story is that Eli was not a good mentor to his own 2 sons who would become priests after him.  In fact, they so angered the Lord that Eli had to strongly rebuke them & the Lord even removed Eli’s family from the line of priests.  His sons were killed.  How could one man be such a good mentor to Samuel and such a poor mentor to his own sons?

You and I are mentors.  We have no choice but to be mentors as we are watched by our children and others with whom we are in contact.  Are we faithful like Hannah or 2-sided like Eli?  The Lord blessed Hannah with 3 more sons and 2 daughters.  God honors those who sincerely honor Him in their actions, because mentoring is so very important in the formation of our youth.

None of us are perfect as individuals – nor are our marriages perfect.  As we work together to maintain our love and a strong marriage, our homes will be a good environment for growing and happy children.