Iron sharpening

Proverbs 27:17 - "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." One of the most important things we can do as Christians is "sharpen" one another. Sharpening can be encouraging, it can be serving, it can be challenging, it can take a lot of different forms, but the result is that it helps us grow in our faith. I am big believer of doing life with others (as Beth has pointed out, if you read much of my blog it usually falls into one of several categories, and one of the main ones being community and/or relationships) and feel this is one of the biggest benefits that come from it. I had the opportunity the last several days to purposefully enter into this kind of sharpening and I feel more alive because of it. Even when it is challenging (and believe me, I am challenged big time by those who are close to me), it is very refreshing for me. I know that my relationship with Christ will benefit from the wisdom that these friends pour into me and the examples they set for me.

We set aside a day yesterday to spend doing just that from a ministry perspective and personally. It is a priority that we committed to a couple of months ago and I have to say that it is the type of encouragement that I consistently need in my life. It was a day filled with fun, transparency, dreaming, confrontation and a bunch of other things, but I know that today I am better for it and that it will help shape my pursuit of God. I can't say enough how much these friends/mentors impact my life. If you have never experienced this kind of sharpening in your life, I would encourage you to find someone and just start. There isn't a certain way that it has to happen, but it won't happen by accident. Who is sharpening you? Who are you intentionally sharpening? Don't wait, start now. You won't regret it.