Never give up; you never know until you try.
If you’re like me, sometimes you encounter someone and wonder why in the world God has allowed him or her to come into your life. Those are often the “rub you the wrong way” people. I’ve heard them called “Sandpaper People”. Although it’s been said that God seems to place those people into our lives to challenge us and to help us grow into better people, we often see their presence as a monumental curse. When we encounter them, we think to ourselves, I can’t deal with her; she’s so different from me and so irritating. Please make her go away, Lord! Actually, it’s often their similarity to us that’s really the problem; we see our imperfections mirrored to us, and they ain’t pretty. (The “ain’t” there was intentional, by the way.)
Sometimes, though, we meet someone and feel blessed to know him or her. That’s the case with a new friend of mine. I already see a couple reasons why God has brought this dear lady into my life. We have noticed that we share several strengths as well as several areas the Lord is still perfecting in us. My sweet friend has praised me generously, saying that I have encouraged her. She has certainly encouraged me when I’ve needed it, and in sharing her areas of weakness with me, she has challenged me to confront those same weaknesses in my life. Trust me when I say that a couple of those areas need lots of perfecting.
Scripture says that as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen each other. (Proverbs 27:17) My new friend is helping to sharpen me.
No comments:
Post a Comment