Television is a strong influencer in our culture. TV watchers view people that influence the way they look, the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the places they go, and more. Online professional influencers promote services and products in an effort to influence the buying habits of shoppers. Both influences have the potential to change the lives of the people to which they are connected.

Life change also happens in the lives of people who have been touched by the lives of people in African American history. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Langston Hughes to name a few, have changed the lives of boys and girls as well as men and women who have been inspired to follow in the footsteps of some ofthese greats.

In the shadows of moms and dads, kids seek to emulate everything their parents are doing from how to cook, to way they talk, and to attending church.”

And let’s not forget the impact of influencers in our own homes. In the shadows of moms and dads, kids seek to emulate everything their parents are doing from how to cook, to way they talk, and to attending church. In many ways, that’s what mentoring is all about: learning to follow the pattern of others so that spiritual growth happens.