Odd question I'm about to ask but I'll ask it anyway because that's what I do: have you made your neighbor (family member, friend, coworker, mail man, the baristas at Starbucks or local coffee shop), have you made any of them smile today? Have they made you smile today? I only ask this because I read Proverbs 27: 17, where it says, "Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." Now, for the last, maybe fifteen or twenty years, people have been using that verse to mean, "get what you can from a successful person." Think about it, when you hear that, its normally brought up when you are starting some new venture and people say, "you know so and so is into that, iron sharpens iron." I mean, that is how that conversation goes right, what they can do for you or what you can do for them to a lesser extent. But looking at the second part of that verse it says the word, countenance and somehow that gets overlooked. Its not talking about helping your business grow or improving your skills or even improving your gardening techniques; the second part of that verse is saying that friends sharpens one another's character. At first, I thought of it as just all smiles but like I said, its about us helping each other with our character and sometimes, that will not always be cheerful because lets face it, sharpening something does not look or sound pleasant. Whether you encourage someone through a good laugh when they are feeling down or encourage them to think about where they are heading in life or even encourage them to go around the neighborhood for a few miles, you are starting a process of sharpening your friends.
Now we all like to put time table on things for some reason and at least for kitchen knives, its good to sharpen them once a month or once year or everyday, depending on how often they are used and what they used for. With that being said, some friends may need daily touch ups and some just need your presence once every blue moon and you can be the same way with those people: the thing is, all of us need to be honed and sharpened. So today, think about who needs help, in their mood, in their behavior, and sharpen them up, who knows, the love you help spread may spread all around.
