Sistering
By Elizabeth Cole
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you
are doing.”
1 Thessalonians
5:11 (ESV)
What do you do when something needs
repairing in your home? Buy a how-to book at Home Depot? Call your friend Dan?
Check the yellow pages? (Do those still exist?!)
No…you “youtube” it. Case in point:
my dryer stopped working last year, so I searched Youtube for the most likely
reasons, googled the nearest repair supply store, and installed my new
part…with success that every single loved one heard about for the next two
weeks…or months!
So, I was on youtube recently and
found a fascinating video on repairing sagging joists. Essentially, the best
way to fix a joist that isn’t functional alone is to affix another joist
alongside it, nailing the two together in such a way that the old joist and the
new joist together are functional and useful, being what they were made to be.
That, in and of itself, is pretty
great. But want to know the best part? It’s called sistering. Yep, the common
construction definition of sistering is “To strengthen
(a supporting beam)
by fastening a second beam alongside it.” [1]
Sounds a lot like intentional,
relational disciplemaking to me.
I have this dream that the sisters I
love and lead would be in the business of sistering: of coming up alongside
another in long-term, intentional relationships for the purpose of spiritual
strengthening, developing and building up, supporting and living out what they
were made to be. That we’d be willing to say “no” to other pursuits that have
no eternal value to open up the space and time to invest in another woman’s
life…in the lives of children, in our husbands’ lives. To see value and
potential…to love as Jesus loves.
The Apostle Paul was a master at sistering. He writes to His
Roman brothers and sisters, “I long to see you that I may impart to you some
spiritual gift to make you strong - - that is, that you and I may be mutually
encouraged by each other’s faith” (Romans 1:11-12). That second part of his
longing expresses a profound truth: the one discipling grows right alongside
the one she’s discipling…the act of sistering is mutually encouraging, each
becoming more of who she was made to be, side-by-side the other, strengthened
for God’s call on her life.
Are you up for some sistering today?
GOING
DEEPER:
1.
Whom has God purposefully placed in your life for you to sister…and are
you?
FURTHER
READING:
Elizabeth is a
wife with three grown daughters and two sons-in-law, and is the Director of
Connecting at Oakwood Church.
[1] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sister.
The concept of spiritual sistering is in Women of Influence: Ten Traits of
Those Who Want to Make a Difference by Pam Farrel (Downers Grove: InterVarsity
Press), 2006.
