Sisterhood

I have always felt so blessed - so gifted by God - to have you four girls. Not just one or two, but four. Just how amazing is that! And you ladies are so lucky to have each other, too. I pray you realize that and even grow in further appreciation of each other over the years. May you find solace in one another, friendship that deepens and abides, understanding and compassion that binds you heart and soul.

Do not lightly hold this gift of God in one another. See clearly how special you are to each other. You will have other very special girlfriends, you may have husbands and families - but what you find in each other as sisters is an abiding for-the-long-haul and through-the-years blessing.

You have had many years in the home here together, even several of your college years. I regard that as a special bonus for my mother’s heart! We have enjoyable, wonderful, crazy family times, lots of laughter, deep talks. You girls have had extra years to live in close contact. Redeem this time; make use of it to love one another more dearly, to grow in your understanding and sensitivities to one another.

Your home is your first real training ground for making you Spirit-filled and fruit-filled and God-dependent. Be a good soldier and athlete in training. Stay the course. Buffet your body, do the hard work of getting into spiritual shape by exercising your muscles of longsuffering and fervent love that covers over the sins of others, of forgiveness, repentance, kindness and thoughtfulness. Bear one another's burdens. Here is a real opportunity to put the needs of another before your own in a very real and practical sense.

Do you see how all of this practice - all of this spiritual discipline applied to life in the home - deepens your character and makes you a lovely young woman of God? The spiritual growth and maturity you attain here, you take with you into life beyond your beginning years and on into eternity. Don’t waste and squander these years. Don’t settle down and squat in a state of ‘just-maintaining’ until you are able to leave and get out on your own. Redeem the time. Make use of the allotted time God has given you here.

If God is truly Sovereign over all, then He is also Sovereign over these years at home and has a plan even here for your spiritual growth and development, beyond the time we spend in the Bible as a family. Don’t throw over the tough lessons of home life relationships and family and sibling struggles because it is just too hard and you cannot wait to move on. While you are here - be all here. Be attentive to the work God is doing in your life, painful or frustrating or revealing and discouraging as it may be.

It is a whole lot easier to put on a façade of godliness outside the home with the public and friends ‘out there’, but our in-house relationships are most often used by God to expose us and lay us bare and uncover ugly sin tendencies. God uses these closer relationships in our lives to shape us up and scrub us clean. Take those challenging, irritating sibling moments that occasionally occur and use that opportunity to grow in grace and Christ-like love for one another. So listen. Heed. Hear. Obey. Do.

Don’t ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit and His urgings. Be quick to make things right. Learn to talk and do the hard, hard work of patching up and mending things in your sibling relationships. Don’t judge harshly and don’t assume you can read your sister’s heart and motives. It is tough to take the time to really listen and hear one another. We are certainly more affectionate with our own perspectives - but we must be aware that the perspective of others is just as valid and real to them. You have needs. Your sisters have needs. Learn to care about their needs, nurture them, and look for opportunities to fill their empty cup.

Living in close proximity with other human beings, we see not only their strengths, but also their foibles and weaknesses and tendencies towards sin. They see yours, too. Give grace to one another. Be tenderhearted. Here is an opportunity to gain insights into human nature - into your own and into the very hearts of others. God says that His people are known by their love. Redeem the opportunity to truly love right here in your own home, with those sometimes the most difficult to love, because we rub and scrape against each other in such daily close proximity. As iron sharpens iron, may you girls sharpen and buff one another to a lovely shine. May you step forth from your home-ground mature and exquisite gems that reflect God’s chiseling and shaping work on your life.

“…brought up in the truth of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed…train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (I Tim.4:7-8)

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Col.3:12-14)