Knickers!

I was recently challenged by one of my friends. She is one of those friends that God has put in my life who is the “Iron sharpening Iron”  type from Proverbs 27. I have a few of these. They are the friends who listen to my sighs. And after the understanding nod or two, they lovingly tell me to stop sighing and be grateful. They are the ones who gently point out the sin in my life, the ones that tell me to love my husband selflessly, the ones that listen but wont allow me to wallow, the ones that remind me why I am to keep training my kids and these friends are a blessing, even if its through gritted teeth at times.

So my sharp friend asked me how i was planning to be lovely to my husband on that day. And I hadn't really realized, but I was subconsciously planning to be a little mellow dramatic and needy when he got home. Afterall I'd been with the kids all day and now it was his shift; his turn to care for me and deal with the little people. But when I received her text asking such a question, it changed things around. It helped me have a different mindset. It made me actually plan to be lovely to him. And not to be selfish as if my needs were a higher priority. I was very grateful for my friend's gentle prompting. (And the husband was grateful too!)

In a women's prayer group recently, someone had the following picture;  "Imagine you came out of the toilet with your skirt tucked in your knickers - Hopefully no one in the room would let you walk around for the rest of the day like that. Hopefully they would be brave enough and compassionate enough to point it out to you." In the same way, we should be brave enough to say when we see each other with missing parts of the Armour of God. We should be able to tenderly point out to a friend, that they are letting themselves be exposed and remind them to put on each part of The Armor of God talked about in Ephesians 6. Of course there's the other side to the challenge... I do want to be the friend brave enough and compassionate enough to point things out to my sisters, but i want to also be willing to allow someone else to talk into my life, and tell me when i'm about to walk out with my skirt tucked into my knickers.    

                   "As iron sharpens iron,
                       so one person sharpens another."

                                                  Proverb 27v17