My husband is a knife sharpener. When he spots someone with a pocketknife you can rest assured, he will ask them about it. Mid-conversation, he will offer to take it home and sharpen it. Over the next few days, he will work it meticulously through two crude looking bars of course metal, resulting in a super sharp blade. 

The sound is horrendous.

Like nails on a chalkboard.

But like a good wife, I do my best to ignore it. I'm thankful for the blessing he is to others, but at knife-sharpening hour you can typically find me running for cover out of earshot of the grating hullabaloo.

Then one day it hit me. Iron sharpening iron. I'd quoted the verse many times.

It represents the way that community, specifically a community of people who know Christ, who serve and love and work together, should encourage and sharpen each other in the Lord.

But what I hadn't realized before was that typically, when iron sharpens iron, the process is less than comfortable. You see, when iron sharpens iron, it sometimes means saying hard things.

Gulp. I'm more of a hugger. 

During our ministry overseas, we saw a real need for encouragers. There’s no shortage of people feeling isolated, misunderstood, and discouraged as they adapt to a new language and culture in their host country. Thus, I made it my goal to be there for them. To encourage, to give chocolate, to relate.

As I see my husband faithfully sharpening his knives, I'm reminded and challenged that God has called us all to be sharpeners, to be iron that sharpens iron.

Sometimes that means gently pointing out sin we see in each other’s lives.

Sometimes it means having a hard conversation to preserve a relationship that has been filled with tension.

Sometimes it means risking what is comfortable for the sake of what is best.

Iron sharpening iron, willing to allow those rough edges to be shaved away to reveal a more useful instrument.

Women that sharpen those around us, faithfully challenging one another to be more like our Master.