There is a young man that we are mentoring. He has many issues and can be a real challenge. I feel like I have to continually 'ride on him' to keep him from making bad choices. I wrote him a letter explaining to him the various areas of his life that need to be changed and how some of these changes can take place.

Much of the young mans problems, flaws, etc. is based upon woundings of the past and poor upbringing. At the age of 23 he acts like he is 16. At the same time he loves the Lord tremendously and wants to be a man of God. It is hard for him to take a sincere look at himself and his flaws. He starts to feel overwhelmed and wants the flaws to go away immediately.

All of this caused me to take a look at my own life. I am 51 and there are flaws in my own life that I wish would go away immediately. But it takes work to change. So many times our identity is based upon who we are, what we do, how we think, etc. When changing it feels like we are losing our identity.

The problem-our identity should be in Christ alone. So, if we let go of bad habits, etc. we should understand that we are being more like Jesus-a good thing.

I am very aware I need more surgery on my personality traits and the way I see some things. So let the surgery begin.