(Archive 2014)
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man (or woman) sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” KJV “As iron sharpens iron, so one man (or woman) sharpens another.” This morning I was thinking of people who have made a difference in my life. I will not name the people who have made a difference, but they are many dating all the way back to childhood, through church, public school, U.S. Navy, college, seminary, seven churches, one Baptist Association and all of the preachers that I have had fellowship with over the years. I’m sure that you can recall many people in your life who have made a difference. I think the Proverbs 27:17 speaks to that. God has given us each other to help each other grow. This happens in several ways. There are people who have loved you through thick and thin, good and bad, pretty and ugly. Your parents probably figure in here, as do your wife and children. But there have been people outside of your family who have overlooked various faults and loved and supported you anyway. I think of the people in my first church. At the ripe old age of twenty one I did not think that there was a whole lot that I did not know. I look back and think of a lot of mistakes that I made in that church, but they loved me anyway. I had a lot of “mamas and grandmas” in that church. They loved me anyway because they knew that I would pastor a lot of other people in the future and that how they helped me and held up my hands would benefit me for the rest of my life. Whether they realized that or not, that was certainly true. Without realizing it, they sharpened me as “iron sharpens iron.” Think back, you have people in your life who loved you in spite of you. There are people who have sharpened you by loving you enough to give you needed criticism. We call it “positive criticism.” I was a pastor three years before Mary and I were married. After we were married, I had someone to give me feedback after I preached. She loved me enough to be honest about, for example, pulpit mannerisms that were disconcerting. Someone told me that I was a better preacher after I got married. One reason was that being married tends to mature people, at least it did me, and the other was that I had someone to talk to and to give me positive reinforcement when I needed it, and criticism when I needed it. Please don’t think that the people who criticize you are trying to hurt you. It is quite possible that they are trying to help you. I know that not every criticism is for positive reinforcement, but I think that God has given us the sense to know the difference and to take it as it is given. However, I have found that sometimes even hostile criticism can give us food for thought that can change us for the better. There are people who have sharpened you by giving you good advice that stuck in your mind and changed you for the better. It didn’t come as a criticism, but you might not have appreciated it at the time, but looking back you were glad that you listened. I know that advice is cheap, and I am careful about giving it unless it is asked for, but even seeming cheap advice may be good for us. One of my favorite people was Sherman Hall, who was my math teacher and coach in high school. He gave me some advice in the locker room of the Lee Country High School gym one day that I did not take at the time, but it came to my rescue many times. That advice was given when I was fourteen years old, I am seventy eight now and I still remember the “talking to” that Coach Hall gave me. You have people like that in your life. Be thankful for them. There are other ways that people have sharpened you. Pause and give thanks to God for them, for He certainly put them in your life. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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