Iron Sharpens

Every Christmas (and summer) break when I came home from boarding school, my dad would pick me up at the bus station, the sun not yet up, and drive me home through streets already full of early risers heading to the morning markets. When we got home, I’d crawl in bed with my mom, still reeking of her nightly Vicks, and tell her all the things I’d been learning from the women who had stepped in to mentor me. Inevitably, she would throw up her hands and say, “I’ve been saying that to you for years!”

But I needed to hear it from multiple women in multiple ways over multiple years. Because I’m thick like that.

You may not have that problem. Maybe you can hear things one time and retain them and implement them into your life like a boss. Maybe you are awesome (I know you are!). But I’ve learned that often I have to learn and relearn (and then re-relearn) the same lessons over and over again, preferably from as many voices as possible.

And I’m never completely sure when something is going to click. Or when it will need to click again.

Interestingly enough, my husband said a similar thing in regard to raising a new generation of readers within his squadron. When he was newly commissioned, there were many situations where he had no clue what he was doing. He was often able to figure out what he needed to do because of the people in his life who were willing to share their experiences with him.

Sometimes though, he could figure out a way forward simply because at some point he had read a book that taught him what he needed to know. He couldn’t always remember what book it was or when he had read it, but the lessons he learned returned to his mind when they were ready to be applied. In addition to sharing his leadership and experiences, he wants to share good books with the Airmen he leads so that they too can benefit from authors who could teach them well.

Now, as we head into the new year, I’ve been asking myself: what voices am I allowing to speak truth into my life? Am I surrounding myself with people who will teach me the lessons I need to learn (over and over and over again)? Am I choosing books that are going to show perspectives that I need? Am I listening to music and podcasts and sermons that will edify me (probably not—I can’t hear anything over the scrum of children shrieking from one end of the house to the other)? Even if I don’t see how it could apply to me at present or in the future, am I purposefully inputting what matters?

Jen Wilkin writes, “What if the passage you study today is preparing you for a trial ten years from now? Study faithfully now, trusting that nothing is wasted, whether your study time resolves neatly in thirty minutes or not.” This applies not just to the scripture we read but to so many other areas. We don’t know what God is giving us now to prepare us for life later. Wouldn’t we rather put in the work ahead of time so that we have the tools we need in the moment?

And on the flip side, what if you have a truth to speak to someone now that they may need farther down the road? My mother didn’t stop speaking truth into my life as a child even though it didn’t necessarily kick in until my teen years (when it was repeated by other women). Similarly, those women didn’t assume that just because my mom had already taught me something that I didn’t need to hear it again. Thankfully.

We don’t always know the impact that our words and actions and love will have on those who receive them. We don’t always know because sometimes it doesn’t kick in for months or even years. Let’s encourage ourselves to speak and act and love anyway.

This year, let’s be purposeful: to put ourselves in the paths of wiser people, whether in person or through books or sermons or podcasts, so that we don’t miss the chance for needed truth to be spoken into our lives again and again until it catches. And let’s be purposeful to be truth speakers, to share our own experiences, to pass on the lessons we have learned, so that we don’t miss the chance to pass on the tools someone else may need down the road.

Put yourself in relationships where your iron can be sharpened. And where your iron can sharpen another’s. You never know what you might need later, or what someone else might need that you’ve managed to offer through your gracious generosity.