“How am I supposed to guard her in practice? She’s so much faster and better than I am!” Megan asked.
“Well, if you want to be the best, you have to play the best,” answered her dad.
Megan’s dad knew that playing against someone faster, tougher, bigger, and stronger would make her play harder. You watch that person, learn from her, and get better because of her. Without a challenge, you never get better at sports. I mean, really, would eighth graders get better at soccer if they played a team of first graders? Probably not. Winning would come too easily. There wouldn’t be a challenge and the eighth graders would probably goof off.
King Solomon knew that to become the best person you can be, you need to be challenged too. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17 NIV).
If you hang around kids who complain about their parents, who talk bad about other kids, who don’t care how they do in school, you’ll easily fall into that same kind of talk. You’ll goof off and start picking up their bad habits.
If you have friends who tell you, “Hey, we shouldn’t be making fun of him” or “Let’s get our homework done first; then we can play,” they are encouraging you to get better. You may not like it because you’d rather goof off. Still, it’s better for you. You’re getting sharper every day.
Chomp on this!
Have you ever had a friend who sharpened you, who helped you get better?
How have you encouraged your friends? Name a situation in which you helped someone get sharper, to be the best person he or she could be.
